CDC reports 'breakthrough' over vaping lung illnesses as cases top 2,000
US health officials are reporting a breakthrough in their investigation into the cause of a nationwide outbreak of vaping illnesses that topped 2,000 cases this week.
The discovery of vitamin E acetate in lung samples offers the first direct evidence of a link between the substance and vaping-related lung injuries. The substance has also been identified in tests by US and state officials of product samples collected from patients with the vaping injury.
In a telephone briefing on Friday, Dr Anne Schuchet, principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called vitamin E acetate “a very strong culprit of concern” and referred to the discovery as “a breakthrough” in the investigation.
She cautioned that more work was needed to definitively declare it a cause, and said studies may identify other potential causes of the injuries as well.
Vitamin E is safe as a vitamin pill or to use on the skin, but inhaling oily droplets can be harmful. It has recently been used as a thickener in vaping fluid, particularly in black market vape cartridges. Vitamin E acetate is believed to be used as a cutting agent in illicit products containing THC – the component of marijuana that gets people high.
Although the substance was detected in all 29 of the lung samples, which came from patients in several different states, more testing is needed to establish a causal link between exposure and injury, Schuchet said, adding that “many substances are still under investigation”.
On Thursday, the CDC reported there have been 2,051 confirmed and probable US lung injury cases associated with use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products in 49 states, the District of
Columbia and the US Virgin Islands, as well as 39 deaths.
Nearly 85% of lung injury patients in the nationwide outbreak have reported using products containing THC.
In the CDC analysis, THC was detected in 23 of 28 patient samples of lung cells, including from three patients who said they did not use THC products. Nicotine was detected in 16 of 26 patient samples.
The results were published on Friday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In a separate report in the same journal, the Illinois department of public health found that compared with vapers who did not get sick, those who had a lung injury were significantly more likely to use THC-containing vaping products exclusively or frequently, and were nine times more likely to have purchased products from illicit sources, such as from online or off the street.
Together, the findings reinforce public health officials’ recommendation that people avoid using e-cigarettes that contain THC or any products that come from illicit sources.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
schools of anybody in the country by far; it’s not even close.”
And he warned: “Democrats want to invest in green global projects, I want to invest in the black American community.”
Trump did not expand on how that would happen, pivoting instead to complaining about Robert Mueller’s investigation and the current impeachment inquiry.
He and the vice-president, Mike Pence, cited the administration’s record on creation of economic “opportunity zones”, the low black unemployment rate nationally and the administration’s anti-abortion stance, to loud cheers.
Jamaal Reynolds, 26, had driven from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to see Trump in person for a third time. He was quick to denounce those who called the president racist, but said his friends and family, who are mostly Democrats, call him crazy.
He explained: “I was born and raised in the ’hood, in the projects [public housing]. The area was run by Democrats and they forgot about it all the time.”
The Georgia state representative Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr, attended the rally, as did the local politician Katrin Pierson. The Kentucky attorney general-elect, Daniel Cameron, the state’s first African American elected to that position, gave a short speech.
Trump has also made recent overtures to black voters with a visit to a historically black college in South Carolina and a summit for young black conservatives at the White House.
As he was wrapping up in Atlanta, he joked to the crowd: “Sixteen more years!”, to a smattering of laughter in the small room.
Next time, he said to the crowd, they would get a bigger room to accommodate people who were waiting outside, making a favorite reference to crowd sizes despite it being clear that there was sufficient space for anyone who would have wanted access to the venue. After an hour’s speech, rambling at times, he shook dozens of hands as he departed.
“He signed my hat!” a woman squealed to her friend, tipping her Maga hat.