VAPE DEATH No 5
‘5,000 dead’ fear in Dorian destruction Experts blast UK health chiefs for continuing to promote e-cigs
HEALTH officials in the UK have been blasted for continuing to promote vaping after e-cigs were linked to five deaths in the United States.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also probing 450 cases of lung conditions across 33 states that may have been caused by vaping.
The death of a 55-year-old man from California follows those of four e- cig users from Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Oregon.
Health authorities in the US have urged users to stop vaping while the deaths are investigated.
But in the UK, Public Health England is continuing to encourage smokers to use e-cigs as a tool to quit smoking.
Experts have criticised the approach. Prof Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: HOMES flattened, boats scattered like matchsticks... this was the scene of carnage yesterday amid fears 5,000 could have died in Hurricane Dorian.
The tiny land, one of the Abaco islands in the Bahamas, was smashed to smithereens by 155mph Dorian.
The death toll is 43, but 5,500 are missing and Bahamian health minister Dr Duane Sands warned: “The public needs to prepare for unimaginable information about the death toll and the human suffering.”
Dorian has caused £6billion damage in the Bahamas alone, leaving thousands homeless. Amid the horror there was hope, however, as the remarkable rescue of one British woman emerged.
The elderly Brit lay under rubble for four days on Great Abaco itself.
She finally managed to reach a phone and call home to Chichester, West Sussex. Her husband alerted rescuers and from his Google Maps reference they were able to trace the property.
A Wildcat helicopter was dispatched from RFA Mounts Bay — a Royal Navy auxiliary ship aiding rescue efforts.
She was in a “poor and deteriorating condition” and airlifted to hospital.
The storm eased as it moved to the US coast, where it left hundreds trapped in their attics in flooded North Carolina. “Public Health England should not be promoting vaping.
“There are still serious questions about the safety of vaping and England is the only country in the world where anybody in public health is promoting it.
“The claim that Public Health England has made that it is 95 per cent safer than smoking is just not viewed with any credibility by the rest of the world.
“We can’t know what the longterm effects of these products are as they have been used for only a relatively short period of time.”
But Martin Dockrell of PHE, said: “Unlike the US, all e-cigarette products in the UK are tightly regulated for quality and safety.
“Our advice remains that e-cigarettes are a fraction of the risk of smoking...”
An estimated 2.9 million adults in the UK currently use e-cigs