American doctors drew attention to the deadly danger of vaping and electronic cigarettes. This is reported by the MedicalXpress edition with reference to the statements of doctors.
Many e-cigarette consumers who sought help have been diagnosed with EVALI (lung injury associated with e-cigarette or vaping), the researchers said. The symptoms of EVALI are high body temperature, cough, vomiting and diarrhea. Many patients with a similar diagnosis ended up in intensive care units, as they had severe lung damage.
In most cases studied by specialists, respiratory damage was caused by the use of non-standard vapor mixtures, which contained tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and psychoactive compounds found in marijuana. The difficulty in diagnosing the disease stems from the fact that e-cigarettes and vaping products – unlike regular cigarettes – differ greatly from brand to brand. EVALI is closely related to vitamin E acetate, which is added to vaping liquids as a condensing component.
Scientists noted that the peak of EVALI diagnosis came in September 2019. By that time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had recorded more than 2.8 thousand cases and 68 deaths. When measures were taken to regulate the electronic vaporizer market, the number of reported EVALI cases dropped dramatically. However, public attention to the problem, according to doctors, disappeared immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19. Doctors cite a study according to which young e-cigarette users are five times more likely to be infected with coronavirus than non-smoking peers.
According to the CDC, 3.6 million middle and high school students in US schools use e-cigarettes – as do 8.1 million US adults. Doctors recommended to conduct educational work with children, in particular, to talk with adolescents over 12 years old about the dangers of smoking both conventional and electronic cigarettes.
