Majority Of EVALI Patients Had Underlying Conditions
New research shows the majority of EVALI patients had underlying illnesses and medical conditions exacerbated by vaping on THC cut with Vitamin E acetate [VAE].
EVALI stands for E-cigarette or Vaping product use-Associated Lung Injury and should now be removed from all medical journals – it’s as simple as that.
The vape world knew within days of the first reported illnesses that nicotine based e-liquids were NOT to blame.
Instead everything pointed to contaminated cannabis cartridges bought from street drug dealers – read my article for more info and background: Vaping Is NOT About To Kill You – But Black-Market THC Cartridges Might .
These carts were found to be diluted with VAE causing the liquid to solidify in users lungs.
Last autumn saw the start of the ‘outbreak’ resulting in around 2,807 hospital cases and tragically 68 deaths – figures are based on last official count in February this year.
Now researchers at University of Texas Southwestern have found the vast majority of those taken ill – especially the teenagers – all had underlying medical conditions to both the stomach and lungs.
Intriguingly, the study found a high number of Hispanic females with known drug use was the highest group prone to contracting the ‘disease’.
Study author Devika Rao, M.D, a specialist pediatric pulmonologist said:
This is the first study on teens and EVALI from UT Southwestern, and one of the first in the country regarding clinical features of EVALI in the pediatric population.
We found that teenagers often presented with GI symptoms, which were just as frequent as respiratory symptoms.
In some cases, these teens had abdominal CT scans that ended up showing abnormalities in the lung, which was the first clue of lung injury.
It may be that in the adolescent population these groups are more vulnerable to risky behaviors than what was previously thought.
This serves as a reminder to clinicians that a teen with EVALI is not necessarily always going to be white and male.
And as we suspected, the vast majority of younger victims of EVALI, were reluctant to tell doctors, and I guess their parents, what they were vaping on…
As to if we’ll see this news in the mainstream media and so lifting the burden of guilt from e-cigarettes?
I highly doubt it.
Another Call To Ban Flavours In Canada
Almost 30 Alberta doctors are calling on the local government for an outright flavour ban – to protect the children…
Oh FFS…here we go again…
They say vaping poses a huge risk for youngsters and also wants to see nicotine levels reduced.
Part of the letter states:
If you believe that you have a political obligation to choose between pleasing adults and protecting children and youth, then your moral duty is obvious.
Children and youth cannot vote, are most affected for the longest time by your decisions and look to you for protection.
You stand in a fiduciary position with respect to children and youth and therefore owe them the highest moral standard in your behaviour toward them.
Phrases like ‘moral duty’ and posh words like fiduciary doesn’t make the argument any more valid – BTW fiduciary means a position of trust.
Doctors are most definitely in a position of trust and it would be nice if they actually looked at the real evidence rather than trusting on something they’ve read in a tabloid…
OOOoo slap my bitchy wrists