"The new recommendation, posted on Thursday, no longer includes the broad reference to stopping vaping, though the agency still says youth, pregnant women and non-tobacco users shouldn’t vape.
“Recommendations were refined to reflect the best available scientific evidence and to best protect public health,” Brian King, the chief science officer for the CDC’s vaping-related outbreak response, said in a statement.
Evidence has increasingly linked the sudden explosion of vaping-related illnesses to a substance called vitamin E acetate, an oil sometimes added to dilute THC products. THC oils and cannabis products are becoming legal in an increasing number of states across the country.
“The available science shows that Vitamin E acetate is strongly linked” to the outbreak, Dr. King said.
The CDC on Friday also made a distinction between the outbreak of vaping-associated lung illnesses and the rise in teen vaping in a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Some public-health experts and those in the vaping industry have said those issues have been conflated.
“There’s really a tale of two epidemics occurring,” said Dr. King in an interview.
The outbreak of vaping-related illnesses started in 2019, health officials believe. Most patients had vaped THC-containing products obtained from unregulated sources, and 62% of the patients were young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 years old."
"The CDC said there isn’t sufficient evidence to rule out chemicals in addition to vitamin E acetate as a cause of the illnesses."
"Roughly 82% of patients of the lung illnesses for whom substance-use data is available reported using THC-containing products, while roughly 14% have reported exclusive use of nicotine products, the CDC said."
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
CDC Steps Back From Broad Recommendation to Refrain From E-Cigarettes
By Brianna Abbott of The WSJ. Excerpts:
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