CDC Steps Back From Broad Recommendation to Refrain From E-Cigarettes

By Brianna Abbott of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"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."