Hundreds more Americans have been reported to have a vaping-related breathing illness, and the death toll has risen to 13, health officials said Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 805 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, up 52% from the 530 reported a week ago. At this point, illnesses have occurred in almost every state.
The confirmed deaths include two in California, two in Kansas, two in Oregon and one each in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Missouri. The Mississippi death was announced by officials in that state Thursday and the second Oregon death was revealed by authorities later in the day.
Over the summer, health officials in a few states began noticing reports of people developing severe breathing illnesses, with the lungs apparently reacting to a caustic substance. The only common factor in the illnesses was that the patients had all recently vaped.
As a national investigation started and broadened, reports have increased dramatically.
It’s not clear how many of the 275 added cases occurred in the last week, and how many are being logged long after they happened. The CDC has not released details on when symptoms began in each case.
The agency’s count includes only illnesses that have met certain criteria. Other illnesses are also being investigated.
Most patients have said they vaped products containing THC, the ingredient that produces a high in marijuana. The investigation has been increasingly focused on products containing THC, with some attention on ingredients added to marijuana oil.
But some patients have said they vaped only nicotine. Currently, health officials are advising people not to use any vaping product until the cause is better understood.
(AP)
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2 Responses
The number of people who MIGHT have died from vaping lies at around 13. The number of people who die from smoking is around 480,000 deaths a year and around 1,300 deaths EVERY DAY.
Those facts may be true, but the deaths from conventional smoking are caused by KNOWN factors (mainly lung cancer and the destruction of cilia in the lung) while the deaths from vaping related to vaping are caused by unknown factors. Being as that is so, we are unable to ban the specific components of vapes that are causing these mysterious illnesses and deaths. This makes them all the more dangerous as it is unknown as to the extent or root causation of this danger. Another reason that we should be concerned about vaping is their widespread use and their supposed safety which is the commonly quoted reason for switching from cigarettes to vapes. If this safety is in doubt then the very appeal of vapes is in doubt.