Vaping detectives get OSU help
Doctors are getting closer to figuring out what exactly caused an outbreak of lung illnesses in people who vape, and they may have researchers at Ohio State University to thank.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with researchers at Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital, conducted a study that strengthens the link between a chemical and the mysterious illness.
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, point to vitamin E acetate as the suspected culprit behind the “e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury“that has hospitalized 2,506 and killed 54, according to the CDC.
As of Tuesday, there had been 92 cases in Ohio, including 12 in Franklin County, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
“This is the whole thing that caught the research community by surprise ... we didn’t know what’s in
these products,” said Peter Shields, deputy director of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, who led the university’s involvement in the CDC study.
Vitamin E acetate is often found in vegetable oils, cereals, meat, fruits and some lotions, but it typically does not cause harm when eaten or applied to the skin, according to the CDC.
It might be used as an additive or thickening agent in some THC vaping products, but the full relationship between vitamin E acetate and THC vaping products is still unclear, according to the CDC. THC is the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana.
The CDC analyzed fluid from the lungs of 51 patients from 16 states suffering from vaping-related injuries. Vitamin E acetate was identified in the fluid from 48 of them.
Shields and his team of OSU scientists provided samples from 99 healthy people for the CDC to compare. Vitamin E was not found in the specimens of healthy people collected by Ohio State doctors, according to the study.
The findings led the CDC to update its guidance on how doctors should treat suspected cases of vaping lung injury. Patients who are hospitalized should follow up with a doctor within two days of being discharged, CDC director Robert R. Redfield said in a prepared statement when the study’s results were released.
“Ensuring this timely medical attention and monitoring can save lives,” Redfield said.
Ohio State is searching for more people willing to participate in its ongoing research, including those who vape THC. Information on individual participants is kept confidential, Shields said.
The Ohio State research comes on the heels of another Ohio
State doctor warning of “knee-jerk” reactions to the vaping illness outbreak.
Bans on devices and flavor cartridges could prevent vaping products from being used to wean people off cigarettes, said Amy Fairchild, dean of Ohio State’s College of Public Health. She and doctors from other major universities published a paper in the journal Science in December cautioning people not to overreact.
The Trump administration is expected this week to announce a ban on some flavored e-cigarette cartridges, and Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine has proposed banning flavored liquids for e-cigarettes. Earlier this year, Dewine’s administration implemented a new 21-and-up age restriction for using tobacco and nicotine products.
More research needs to be done, Shields said, before the medical community can make a final judgment on whether vaping devices are “God’s gift to the world” of tobacco users or the “Antichrist.”
“It just highlights how much we don’t know about electronic cigarettes,” Shields said. “We think e-cigarettes are going to be safer than cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe.”