A previously healthy Marin County woman in her 40s who started vaping six months ago has died, county officials said Wednesday.
“With sadness, we report that there has been a death in our community suspected to be caused by severe lung injury associated with vaping,” Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said in a news release.
Marin County public health officials are working with the California Department of Public Health and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to obtain test samples to determine the specific products that may have contributed to the death.
It is the fourth vaping-associated death in California since July.
The CDC last week reported 39 deaths nationally and more than 2,000 suspected cases in the national epidemic of lung damage associated with e-cigarettes.
Marin County Public Health issued a warning in September recommending that residents cease e-cigarette use and vaping until the cause of the outbreak is known. Many Marin County cities and towns banned the sale of flavored tobacco beginning in January 2020.
The specific products or compounds that cause lung injury after e-cigarette use are not known, but the CDC said Vitamin E acetate is a likely contributor in some cases.
Oil-based vitamin E is sometimes added to vaping liquids, especially those containing the psychoactive cannabis compound THC, but many confirmed cases of lung injury have not been tied to THC, county officials said.
There are several thousand formulations of vaping liquids and many have not been tested for safety, according to the county.
Symptoms of e-cigarette and vaping-associated lung injury, (EVALI) include shortness of breath, coughing or chest pain often accompanied by nausea, fever, vomiting or diarrhea. People with the symptoms who previously
used e-cigarettes should seek prompt medical attention.
“The message is simple: it’s not safe to vape,” Willis said.
“Until we have a better understanding of the cause of this outbreak, it’s best to avoid these products entirely,” Willis said.
Vape users can get help quitting by calling (844) 8-NO-VAPE.
15 comments
I can’t stand these stories that leave out obviously crucial facts. It feel like it’s intentionally trying to mislead people by speculating and giving them only fragments of a story. I am not advocating vaping. It’s just I grew up in the Just Say No/ Nancy Regan era and a lot of false info was fed to us with the intent of instilling fear. Had they been honest, it would have been more effective.
What “obviously crucial” facts do you believe have been left out?
That the legal dispensaries only carry lab tested products that are not allowed to contain the ingredients in question. They are all from the illicit market and not from licensed dispensaries. So by banning all vaping products you will take away access to the tested products as well.
Well, since the cause of death has yet to be determined by health officials, I’m not so sure those “facts” are crucial to this story.
Hope they figure out why some people are getting sick and dying so they can regulate the products because banning vaping will only encourage Black Market activity and more internet sales.
It’s mainly related to additives like vitamin E oil which are proven harmful if inhaled. People need to educate themselves on what they are purchasing. Aftermarket/black market and non lab tested products are the culprit.
Do you feel lucky? Do you?
Like the “carbon on the street that the leaf blowers spread everywhere”, as you once pointed out.
We all know cigarette smoking and other tobacco products are bad for you, and causes cancer, usually lung cancer. However, my dad who was born in 1905 (in Denmark) smoked for many years, started when he was a teen ager, in later years he switched to cigars, but said he didn’t inhale, he died at 81 of lung related illness (not cancer) it is possible he would have lived longer without smoking, since his mother and grandmother both lived well into the nineties. Almost none of my friends smoke these days, some use to, but stopped years ago, I have one friend who is a chain smoker, and has been since his teens, he is in his mid sixties, and although not in great health, it does not seem to be associated with smoking. What is surprising about vaping is that it seem to cause devastating effects, without long term use.
Purchase from a reputable store, not online, not someone’s garage. Find out what products were being consumed and test them. You have to figure that if all vape products are killers, more people would be dead by now. Just like alcohol (and others) cause tons of deaths, medical and societal problems, but I don’t see anyone trying to make alcohol illegal.
Doubt if she was vaping a legal substance.
39 people have died? How many die every day from smoking cigarettes?
People need to keep a cool head on this. Clearly something has gone wrong with some vape juices, seriously wrong. The whole sector needs more regulation for what gets put into the substance. But some ‘experts’ are using this crisis as an opportunity to push a ‘nicotine always bad!’ model that isn’t justified or helpful. If the vaping landscape gets cleaned up, it has the potential for huge, huge public health benefits. If the DHS had come up with vaping themselves, they would be congratulating themselves for the greatest development in public health since vaccination.
Why don’t we just ban tobacco products all together? They’re gross, and it’s sad to see otherwise smart, charismatic, independent and influential people suck so desperately at a cigarette or vaping device that it looks like they’d gotten their hands on a human nipple that they’d been denied their whole lives. It’s also RUDE and GROSS to smoke that crap in public. I elect to kept my lungs nice and pink, and I (and the nonsmoking public at large) shouldn’t have to suffer through smelling cigarette smoke because someone who’s made poor life decisions for themself decides they’re entitled to smoke wherever they choose. Down with cigs and vaping!
Why don’t we just ban tobacco products all together? They’re gross, and it’s sad to see otherwise smart, charismatic, independent and influential people suck so desperately at a cigarette or vaping device that it looks like they’d gotten their hands on a human nipple that they’d been denied their whole lives. It’s also RUDE and GROSS to smoke that crap in public. I elect to kept my lungs nice and pink, and I (and the nonsmoking public at large) shouldn’t have to suffer through smelling cigarette smoke because someone who’s made poor life decisions for themself decides they’re entitled to smoke wherever they choose. Down with cigs and vaping!
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