Vaping Illnesses Linked To Vitamin E Acetate, CDC Says (cnn.com) 51
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Vitamin E acetate, an ingredient added to THC-based products, has been identified as a "very strong culprit" in the vaping-related lung injuries (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source) that have sickened 2,051 people and killed more than three dozen, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. But the agency left open the possibility that other chemicals or toxins could also be causing the severe respiratory ailments. The report is based on finding the vitamin compound in fluid samples taken from the lungs of 29 patients who had the lung disease. "For the first time, we have detected a potential toxin of concern, vitamin E acetate, from biological samples from patients," with lung damage linked to vaping, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the C.D.C., said at a news briefing. The samples, she said, "provided evidence of vitamin E acetate at the primary site of injury in the lungs."
Samples taken from the patients were also tested for plant oils, petroleum distillates like mineral oil and other potentially harmful substances, which were "notably not detected," the C.D.C. said. The findings are being published in Friday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. About 70 percent of the patients are male, 79 percent are younger than 35 and 86 percent say that they have vaped THC. Many of the products used by those who became ill were illicitly obtained, public health experts have said, by patients who bought them from friends or on the street. Vaping oils typically include other additives, solvents and flavor enhancers. Vitamin E acetate is sometimes added to dilute the THC to increase profits or as a thickening agent.
Samples taken from the patients were also tested for plant oils, petroleum distillates like mineral oil and other potentially harmful substances, which were "notably not detected," the C.D.C. said. The findings are being published in Friday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. About 70 percent of the patients are male, 79 percent are younger than 35 and 86 percent say that they have vaped THC. Many of the products used by those who became ill were illicitly obtained, public health experts have said, by patients who bought them from friends or on the street. Vaping oils typically include other additives, solvents and flavor enhancers. Vitamin E acetate is sometimes added to dilute the THC to increase profits or as a thickening agent.
Previously suspected. CDC report was today (Score:5, Insightful)
Vitamn E acetate is indeed one of the ingredients that have been suspected for a couple of months. Today the CDC released their report confirming that indeed v E was found in the lungs of the affected patients and other suspected possibilities were NOT.
So until today it was "it could be vitamin E, or this or that or the other thing". As of today, we know.
Here is a link to the report (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volum... [cdc.gov]
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Load up a bowl and fire it up.
Or hell, make a brownie.
I don't recall anyone losing a lung or dying pot in the old tried and true methods.
It's not rocket surgery.
Re: Here is a link to the report (Score:2)
There is already a thinning agent thst was FDA approved called Polyethylene glycol. This is the chemical used in symbicort. For whatever fucking reason these tree-hugging hippie-dippie colorado dumbasses thought vitamin E would be more natural. Thats why its showing up everywhere. You would not be surprised the amount of road trips people make to colorado to move product to other, still regulated, states. PEG400 may not be -natural- but it does not leave a film of oil in your alveoli sacks. Hemlock is natu
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It's not rocket surgery.
Since they could only fit so many blades in a traditional safety razor form-factor, I switched to shaving with a chainsaw. Many more little blades, much better!
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Geez, why not do it the old safe, time tested reliable way...
Load up a bowl and fire it up.
I've never tried a liquid vaporizer, I would definitely have some concerns about what sort of chemicals are used in the "juice", but dry herb vaporizers are a wonderful invention. Not only do you avoid all the unwanted byproducts of combustion, but they are much more efficient and don't destroy as many of the desirable compounds as well. I rarely smoke joints or bowls anymore, and probably spend 50% less on bud for the same effect. Gotta love technology.
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Vitamn E acetate is indeed one of the ingredients that have been suspected for a couple of months. Today the CDC released their report confirming that indeed v E was found in the lungs of the affected patients and other suspected possibilities were NOT.
So until today it was "it could be vitamin E, or this or that or the other thing". As of today, we know.
All deriving from illegal black market products. NONE from legitimate store bought products.
Can I get my fucking Mango Juul pods back now assholes?
Yeah i know ... the kids. Kids haven't stopped 7-11 from selling grape flavored blunt wrappers.
Kids can do all kinds of shit they aren't supposed to , what does that have to do with me?
Kids can stick a fork in an electric socket, eat tide pods, or drink bleach if they feel so compelled, I cant have mango vapes? Get it together.
Re: Previously suspected. CDC report was today (Score:3)
Kids HAVE stopped 7-11 from selling citrus flavored cigarettes, clove cigarettes, and other non-menthol flavored cigarettes. Given that Juul is an e-"cigarette", it's legally consistent to keep the flavors banned.
Flavored blunt wraps are not cigarette products, so are not forbidden when flavored, which is consistent with cigars and cigarillos (that is, tobacco wrapped smoking products which predate the industrial revolution).
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Some slashdot vaper has been spamming this fact for even longer.
As usual, the media and government are the last to admit the truth.
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We still don't know "this" is "this" means "a culprit". Straight from the study:
>Although vitamin E acetate was detected in all specimens in this analysis of a convenience sample of 29 EVALI case-associated BAL specimens, additional studies are needed, including comparison with BAL fluid specimens from healthy volunteers and animal studies using controlled exposures to establish whether a causal link exists between this exposure and EVALI. Based on these data from 29 patients, it appears that vitamin E a
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uhm, 'ok, boomer'
Didn't read the first sentence of the summary? (Score:2)
Nicotine? Didn't read even the very first sentence of the summary, eh?
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You know, I get the feeling that you're quite satisfied about how novel you think that joke was.
Re: Can't say I feel too bad for said Vapists. (Score:2)
Will this put to rest false concerns? (Score:1)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sure just as they get a hold of flavored liquor
Whoah there cowboy! Flavored alcohol is beloved by the rich old people making the laws round' these parts. A few kids dead of alcohol poisoning is a perfectly natural part of growing up. Now back to the vaping crisis...
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Comment do undo accidental incorrect moderation. Please someone else add a +1 insightful to parent for me ;)
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Everyone dies sooner or later. More people die per day from not smoking than die from smoking. Every single one of them died from being born. If they had not been born, then they would not become dead. They also drank water.
Lier lier pants on fire (Score:2)
Re: Lier lier pants on fire (Score:2)
Its made by licensed dispensaries. Only dumbass hippies would think vitamin-e was better for you than PEG400, which is the fda approved chemical for thinning bho. You can buy peg400 online lots of places. Its not even that expensive. Vit-e was ignorant people thinking they were in tune with mother earth. Been to Bolder? That prettymuch describes the whole damn town. Most street sold product is just people making road trips to Colorado.
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Curios? An unusual or intriguing object? How curious....
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Its not used by legitimate businesses. Only used by Blackmarket Pot pod manufacturers. The E liquid industry only uses propylene glycol, and Vegetable Glycerin.
Honey Cut (Score:5, Informative)
mod parent up (Score:2)
mod parent up! great read.
I'd be surprised if that josh temple guy is still in america, he would be an idiot to not have fled the country. What a scumbag.
So then ... (Score:2)
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Like cocaine (Score:1)
So, as we all knew all along, like cocaine the problem isn't what you're buying, but what they're cutting it with.
Street drugs are almost all much safer than most prescription drugs. It's the black market, created through racist drug laws and aggressive taxation, that is killing people.
When the drug war finally ends, it would be nice if we threw everyone in the DEA in prison as a replacement.
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Natural Philosophy (Score:2)
If people were more familiar with Natural Philosophy, they'd know vaping, like smoking, is potentially very risky and they'd wait a few years to see what it results in.
The lungs are made for breathing air, not chemical cocktails.
I'm amazed that a main stream media outlet... (Score:3)
...is finally covering this correctly. We've gone months (and yes, the CDC publicly stated a while back that they suspected Vitamin E acetate could be the culprit) with the main stream media reporting this as though ALL vaping was suspect, that there was no known cause, and that everyone should stop vaping immediately. We knew early on what the suspected culprit was, we knew that it was almost entirely limited to THC vapes, we knew that it was almost entirely limited to street-made THC vapes, we knew WHY the Vitamin E acetate was being used in those vapes, and no one seemed all that interested in why this was a sudden thing despite vaping being at least somewhat popular for close to a decade. This entire story has had some of the worst reporting on any topic I've ever seen in my life. And given the state of journalism these days, that's saying a lot.