An Oregon adult has become the second person to die from a mysterious lung ailment that’s related to “vaping” — that is, using an electronic vaporizer machine to heat an oil that contains nicotine or cannabis. As Chicago’s WLS-TV reports, the Oregon patient died from vaporizing cannabis, while it’s not clear if the Illinois patient’s death is related to vaping nicotine or cannabis.
For years now, “vaping” has been a thing, with users all around the world using electronic vaporizer machines to heat an oil and inhale the vapor. Although the majority of people who “vape” are using it for nicotine, many cannabis users get their product through vaping as well.
Unfortunately for users of both products, emergency rooms, predominately in the Midwest but elsewhere as well, have been treating people who have presented with severe lung ailments after using the electronic vaporizers. Patients have had difficulty breathing, and in some cases, they’ve even wound up in Intensive Care in need of breathing support.
As reported at the time by The Inquisitr, in late August an Illinois patient became the first person to die from the vaping-related illness.
Now, however, a second person has died from a vaping-related illness, this time in Oregon. Specifically, the patient, who has been identified only as an adult, had been using a vaporizer to heat a cartridge of marijuana oil that he or she had legally purchased at an Oregon marijuana dispensary.
Michigan on Wednesday became the first state in the country to ban flavored e-cigarettes, as concerns continue to grow over the potential dangers of vaping. https://t.co/8u55WG6by5
— ABC News (@ABC) September 4, 2019
Dr. Ann Thomas, with the Oregon Health Authority, declined to name the brand of the product or the dispensary where the patient purchased it.
“Our investigation has not yielded exactly what it is in this product. At this point, some of the other states have more data than us,” she said.
As of the most recently-available data, which is from last week, 225 individuals have turned up with lung ailments in 25 states. And while the vast majority of such cases have involved users vaping nicotine, in at least a few cases, the users vaped cannabis.
At least two jurisdictions have taken bold action to try to get ahead of the problem. In Milwaukee, city officials warned everyone in the city of half a million people to stop vaping immediately, as reported by The Inquisitr. And in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a series of executive orders that, among other things, prohibit billboard rentals from companies that manufacture or sell vaping products, and bans the sale of vaporizer cartridges that are flavored.