Vaping

TOPEKA, Kansas — A proposal to ban all fruity and sweet vaping flavors in Kansas has upset both pro-vaping and anti-tobacco groups.

Hundreds of popular flavors would disappear. Menthol would remain. The flavor restrictions wouldn’t apply to traditional tobacco products, such as cigarettes.

Wichita is the latest — and largest — public school district in Kansas to announce plans to sue the popular vaping company Juul Labs.

From Texas Standard:

This week, Texas Health and Human Services reported a record number of people with lung disease linked to vaping. One of those people has died; many of them are young – an average of 22 years old. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recently released a report saying that more than 6 million American teens use tobacco products, the majority of those products being e-cigarettes. But health experts are still trying to determine which vaping products are causing illness. In the meantime,  health officials recommend that Texans stop using e-cigarette products altogether.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there has been a breakthrough in the investigation into the outbreak of vaping-related lung injuries that has led to the deaths of 39 people and sickened more than 2,000 others.

Investigators announced Friday that they have detected a chemical compound called vitamin E acetate in all the samples of lung fluid collected from 29 patients who were hospitalized after vaping, suggesting a possible culprit for the spate of lung injuries that has swept across the U.S.

A ban on vaping will soon extend to "every inch" of the Texas A&M University System, according to a Tuesday memorandum from Chancellor John Sharp that cites recent revelations about how electronic cigarette use or vaping can lead to lung illnesses.

From Texas Standard:

Several states have recently reported dramatic upticks in the number of people experiencing illnesses associated with vaping. Reported cases have more than doubled, to 450, spread over 33 states, including Texas. While no one in Texas has died, six people have died elsewhere in the United States. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has confirmed a plan to ban at least some electronic cigarettes.

The unregulated marketing of e-cigarettes is increasing the number of young people who vape, according to a new study from researchers at UT Austin. 

A study published this week in the medical journal Radiology has found vaping — even just one time — damages blood vessel function. UT Health San Antonio pulmonologist Sandra Adams said this research, in addition to a Centers for Disease Control investigation into more than 100 cases of severe lung disease linked to vaping, back up health experts’ previous admonitions that people avoid e-cigarettes until more is known about how they impact long-term health.

The state health department is investigating a potential connection between recent cases of lung disease in Texas teens and e-cigarette use.

State health officials say they learned last week of cases of lung disease in Texas adolescents.

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — Many people figure vaping spares their health because it lets them inhale nicotine in aerosols instead of sucking in smoke from burning cigarettes.

New research from the University of Kansas casts doubt on that, raising the specter that vaping nicotine may cause some of the same respiratory problems that plague and even kill smokers today.

“Vaping is just considered not harmful, even though there are no data to support that statement,” researcher Matthias Salathe said. “There are more and more data to actually oppose that statement.”

Vaping at Kansas schools is reaching epidemic proportions, prompting the Kansas State Board of Education to launch a concerted campaign against it.

“This thing hit us like a tsunami,” said Jeff Hersh, assistant superintendent at Goddard Public Schools. “Quite honestly it’s very alarming.”

The new reality of smoking at Kansas high schools is visible in the parking lots, where used-up Juul pods have taken the place of cigarette butts.

“You can pick up the discarded Juul cartridges all over the concrete,” Andover High School school resource officer Heath Kintzel said of the popular vaping brand. “It’s everywhere.”

Concerns about e-cigarettes usually center on youth. But a CDC report using data from Texas and Oklahoma suggests it’s a problem to watch among pregnant women.

Noelle Cerone has noticed a disturbing trend at her high school situated in the mountains just north of Steamboat Springs.

“I know a lot of kids who have changed over time because they have gotten addicted to the nicotine in vape pens,” the Steamboat Mountain School junior wrote this week in a letter to state lawmakers.

Colorado teens vape more than teens in any other state studied by federal researchers and at twice the rate of the national average. That's according to federal research on vaporizers, or e-cigarettes, and it leads health experts to warn that teens either misunderstand or underestimate the risks.

The use of e-cigarettes is associated with an increased risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke, according to research that is scheduled to be presented Feb. 6 at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in Honolulu.

Concern around the health effects of e-cigarette use has grown in recent years, fueled by a surge in their popularity and a belief that they're safe alternatives to normal cigarettes.