Vapers go back to cigarettes after ‘outbreak’ of lung illness
AMERICAN smokers are turning back to cigarettes amid health scares over vaping, experts have warned.
Vaping has been linked to six deaths across the United States, and 380 people have been admitted to hospital with lung illnesses in what the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has called an “outbreak”.
This week, Donald Trump moved to ban flavoured e-cigarettes in a bid to deter teenagers from taking up vaping.
Three quarters of the market is controlled by the e-cigarette company Juul. Some smokers who started using the devices as a way of quitting said they were moving back to cigarettes.
Lucas McClain, 21, from Arlington, Virginia, said he had “bought a Juul to quit smoking cigarettes. Now I’m smoking cigarettes to quit the Juul”.
He added: “Juul made my nicotine addiction a lot worse. When I didn’t have it for more than two hours, I’d get very anxious.”
Dr Sally Satel, of the American Enterprise Institute, said the proposed ban on flavours could lead to more people smoking traditional cigarettes. She said: “There is little question that some adults will switch back to their Marlboros and Kools if their preferred flavours are no longer available.”
Juul has said it will “fully comply” with the final policy on flavoured ecigarettes introduced by the US Food and Drug Administration.
A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that more than half of patients with the lung illness – 24 of 41 – who were interviewed in Wisconsin and Illinois reported having used black market marijuana vape cartridges sold under the name “Dank Vapes”.
Taking the high ground