CONCERNS are growing over the safety of vaping after American health officials confirmed they are investigating hundreds of cases of severe lung disease potentially associated with e-cigarette use.

It’s being described as an “epidemic” in the States?
This summer has seen more than 215 young people in their late teens or 20s, turning up at US emergency rooms reporting shortness of breath, vomiting, fever and fatigue. Some have been put on ventilators. Dr. Melodi Pirzada, chief paediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, New York, told the New York Times the outbreak is “becoming an epidemic”, adding: “Something is very wrong.”

Do the experts know for certain vaping is to blame?
No, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration in the States have just released a joint statement saying they require more information to understand if there is a link between the surge in lung illnesses and specific products or substances. Presently, they said it does not appear the cases are linked to one particular product. 

They noticed one commonality?
Not quite a commonality, but in “many” of the cases being investigated, patients reported using compounds found in cannabis while vaping.

It could even be an outside factor?
Possibly. Health investigators are also looking at whether a particular toxin could have somehow got into the supply of some vaping products, as well as exploring whether some people re-used cartridges containing any contaminants, or whether the risk stems from factors such as heavy e-cigarette use, vaping marijuana or a combination of factors together.

One US teen ended up in a coma?
Student Maddie Nelson, 18, of Utah, suffered catastrophic lung damage after vaping daily for three years. An x-ray revealed she had “severe damage” to her lungs. She was put into a medically-induced coma while she battled for life, diagnosed with “acute eosinophilic pneumonia”.
Her sister said: “Her doctor suspects it’s from electronic vaping sources, this includes all supposedly ‘safe' alternatives to smoking such as e-cigarettes.”

What are e-cigarettes anyway?
Devices that allow you to inhale nicotine in a vapour, rather in tobacco you would inhale in a cigarette. 

So they are, on the face of it, safer?
They don't burn tobacco or produce tar or carbon monoxide, which are the most damaging aspects of tobacco smoke. So far, experts have said vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

So what’s the issue?
The lack of knowledge. NHS Health Scotland state: “Although they contain nicotine, which is addictive, vaping carries less risk than smoking tobacco. It would therefore be a good thing if smokers used e-cigarettes instead of tobacco cigarettes, only as a potential route towards stopping smoking. Further research is required to understand the risks of e-cigarettes.”