Vitamin E acetate was the culprit in all those lung injuries

November 11, 2019

that were lumped into the intentionally vague sounding "vaping related" illnesses that we've been hearing about for the past few weeks.  All 29 samples of lung fluids tested from vaping device users with severe lung injuries contained the additive vitamin E acetate, according to the data recently published by the Centers for Disease Control last Friday. 

“These new findings are significant,” said Anne Schuchat, CDC principal deputy director in a press conference last week.  This makes one wonder how long these findings have been held back for whatever given nefarious or not reason over the past few months while conventional vaping has been essentially thrown under the boss along for the ride. 

The lung injuries have been an apparent mystery to health officials for months as a nationwide outbreak of what the media dubbed "vaping related illnesses." Health officials have come up with a harder to say yet much more accurate initialism, and now refer to the condition as EVALI, or “e-cigarette, or vaping, product use–associated lung injury.”

The CDC has tallied 2,051 confirmed and probable EVALI cases in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands as of the beginning of November; of those cases, 39 were fatal. Investigators have determined that most cases appear to be associated with the use of vaping products containing THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana and the illegal vape cartridges containing the Vitamin E Acetate. 

It's good that this information is getting widespread attention but does every related video to this news have to include B roll of people hitting regular nicotine vapes? One really has to wonder if the media reporting this are either that incompetent or just complicit in not caring about reporting the facts.  Unfortunately for the vast majority of people, they don't know or care about vaping eLiquids or anything else, so naturally all those people lumping all vapes together, reinforcing the vape hysteria and mass misinformation.

Vitamin E acetate has also been suspected since September, when health officials in New York announced that the supplement was found at very high levels in nearly all the confiscated THC cartridges linked to illnesses found in the state.   This most recent investigation collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples, a gross sounding mouthful that is basically fluid flushed into and then recollected from the lung through a tube inserted into the mouth or nose.

Between August and October this year doctors in 10 states collected samples from 29 EVALI patients, two of whom had unfortunately died.  Officials tested the samples for a wide variety of substances including; mineral oils, plant oils, diluted, terpenes, other cannabinoids, nicotine, and commonly found components of lung secretions.

Vitamin E acetate was the only substance tested for that showed up in all 29 samples. From their new study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers concluded: Based on these data from 29 patients, it appears that vitamin E acetate is associated with EVALI; however, it is possible that more than one compound or ingredient could be a cause of lung injury, and evidence is not yet sufficient to rule out contribution of other toxicants to EVALI.

What do you think about these latest findings? Has the real science finally come to light? Will people even care now that enough bad press has been out in the mainstream narrative for this long?  How many people even know the differences between vaping products? 

Leave a comment

Name *

Email *

Comment *

---

Also in Northland Vapor News