According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the outbreak of lung injuries that appear to be caused by vascular disease may flatten out or even decrease, and while the federal agency finally accuses most“ THC products on the black market, it continues to use the nicotine vapor term e-cigarettes“ to describe the products that cause harm.
By last Tuesday (the last official update), 1,604 cases had been reported from 49 states (all except Alaska), the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The CDC says that 34 people from 24 states have died.
CDC Deputy Chief Executive Dr Anne Schuchat told reporters on Friday that the deceased were aged 17-75 with an average age of 45 years, comparable to an average age of only 23 years for those who survived their injuries. Schuchat said the „vast majority of patients“ had a history of evaporation of THC products – 85 percent of those for whom the agency has data.
„Remember, these are self-reports“, Zeller said. „It is the person who says: „I have only used the nicotine-containing products. „The question arises whether… in fact, if they say that I have only used one nicotine-containing product“. „Zeller notes that many of the victims live in states, „Zeller notes that many of the victims live in states. „It is the person who says: „I have only used the nicotine-containing products. „It is the person who says: … In fact, if they say that I have only used one nicotine-containing product.
In other words, to avoid complications such as criminal charges or problems with parents, some cannabis users may distort the facts about what they have evaporated. And since patients are treated according to the health regulations of the states in which they live, there is no mandatory THC test on a broad front.
So far, there has been no case of lung injury related to a nicotine product.
CDC still uses the term „e-cigarettes“.
The agency unfortunately names the injuries EVALI, shortly before „E-cigarette or pest, product application Related lung damage“. The CDC seems to be committing itself to its misleading reporting and still adds the term „E-cigarette“ to the outbreak, although it itself admits that most victims say they have illegal cannabis oil (or hashish oil) cartridges (carts) and no nicotine inverdable.
Cannabis oil presses do not call their products e-cigarettes. This is a name used only for nicotine weapons. The CDC's continued resistance to the use of terms recognizable by consumers of dangerous products may well be responsible for many of the recent injuries.
The first reports of the outbreak were dealt with by the CDC's determined Anti-Steam Office on Smoking and Health, and the entire office has since continued to use that office's terminology, encouraging potentially millions of cannabis oil presses to continue using dangerous, untested hash patterns because they believed that „E-cigarettes“ (nicotine products) would be the way to avoid them.
The CDC appears to be using the outbreak of lung injury as a means to promote or at least enable local and national bans and restrictions on nicotine products. Seven states have since the outbreak banned aromatized vapor products, mostly in direct response to the lung injury or at least as a secondary cause. The Trump government has also proposed a federal taste ban, but the aromas in legal steam products have nothing to do with these injuries.
What causes lung damage?
According to the CDC, it is not certain exactly what is causing lung damage in the illegal oil samples. The agency appears to be looking for a new explanation that has not yet been implemented, or a combination of factors. They are testing the lung fluids of the victims and the FDA is checking the contents of products shipped by government agencies.
CDC appears to have ruled out the possibility that recently introduced cannabis oil thinners containing vitamin E acetate were responsible for all or most of the injuries, based at least in part on a Mayo Clinic study that looked at lung biopsies of some of the victims and found injuries not comparable to those of vitamin E acetate.
Vitamin E (tocopherol / tocopheryl) acetate, according to Zeller, has not been found in most FDA-tested patterns. Whether the CDC believes that the diluent plays any role at all in the outbreak – possibly in combination with other factors – is not certain.
Another early proposal was the fungicide myclobutanil, which can release hydrogen cyanide from the lung poison when heated. The use of myclobutanil on tobacco is prohibited.
