Vape marketing linked to virus draws critics
Vape manufacturers have long been accused of marketing to teens with flavors such as mango and cotton candy. Now vaping opponents say vape manufacturers are exploiting the coronavirus with face mask and hand sanitizer giveaways and #COVID-19 discounts.
One maker of disposable vapes, Bidi Vapor, declared on Instagram: “A Bidi Stick a day keeps the pulmonologist away.”
The national Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids says the tactics are hypocritical. Its president, Matthew L. Myers, said it’s imperative that young people quit vaping to avoid being susceptible to COVID-19.
“Never before in our history has it been more important for young people to have healthy lungs,’’ Myers said.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said the marketing is outrageous.
“It is so irresponsible,’’ said DeLauro, a member of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End The Youth Vaping Epidemic. “It just reeks of greed.”
But Andrew O’Bright, president of the Connecticut chapter of the SmokeFree Alternatives Trade Association, said the claim that vape shops are exploiting the pandemic is laughable.
“There’s not some evil ploy here,’’ O’Bright said. “Our industry is trying to say, ‘We’re here to help you.”
Adam Webster, who owns The Steam Co. vape shops in Manchester and Orange and an e-liquid manufacturer in Denver, said that when the pandemic hit, his plant quickly converted a machine from making e-liquid to hand sanitizer.
He said his company lost $7,000 by giving away thousands of free bottles to customers, first responders and hospitals. “You know what’s better than having $7,000?” he asked. “Having a healthy customer base who maybe can’t find hand sanitizer.”
The Threat Before COVID-19
The advertising gimmicks are the latest controversy involving the vaping industry, which Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said has hooked a new generation of young people on nicotine. He has proposed a national ban on flavored vapes while DeLauro favors a ban on all vaping products.
While no data has definitively linked vaping to COVID-19, Blumenthal points to a 2019 British study that found that ecigarettes may cause acute injury to the lungs and weaken the immune system. He said vaping “is contributing to the danger and deadliness of the coronavirus.”
Before COVID-19 hit, vaping was linked to a mysterious illness that killed one person in Connecticut and 64 nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called it EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury.
As of February, more than 2,800 people have been hospitalized with EVALI, including 51 in Connecticut, the CDC reports. Twenty-three cases involved patients 24 or younger, the state Department of Public Health reports.
Overall, cases of EVALI had been declining nationally since last fall, which the CDC attributes to increased awareness about the risks of vaping and THC and the removal of Vitamin E acetate from some products.
A 19-year-old man came to Stamford Hospital in November, complaining of shortness of breath, a dry cough and abdominal pain. Dr. Paul Sachs, Stamford Health’s director of pulmonary medicine, said it was a severe case of EVALI.
“The fluid in the lungs was kind of drowning him,” Sachs said. “It was a race to treat him with steroids as quickly as possible. If he had waited a day to come in, he might not have made it.”
The teen, who recovered, told Sachs he had vaped black market “juice” laced with THC, the ingredient in marijuana that produces a high. The CDC has linked
EVALI to the black market vapes and the acetate, a thickener used in some vaping products.
Dr. Melanie Sue Collins, a pediatric pulmonologist at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, said 80% of the 10 EVALI patients her hospital treated had vaped THC. They all recovered.