Vaping-induced Lung Injury - Know the Facts

Hi, I’m Dr. Doug Moore, a Pulmonary and Critical Care physician here at CHI Health. With all the recently-identified cases of vaping-induced lung injury we felt it important to reach out and let people know what potential dangers are associated with vaping.

We have seen a large number of cases of vaping-induced lung injury throughout the United States, most recently reaching around 530, with 9 deaths reported. Within our organization, we have seen 5 confirmed cases with several other suspected cases.

We know that vaping was originally conceived as a potential alternative to help folks quit smoking as well as to replace smoking entirely. However, since the inception of vaping here in the United States, we have seen the popularity increase substantially over time.  We know the vaping industry is currently about a 2.6 billion-dollar-a-year industry.

What is Causing Vaping-Related Lung Injury?

We are concerned about the fact that we see these cases of vaping-related lung injury sprouting up all over the place but we don’t know what the exact cause is within the vape products themselves. We know that injured patients have been using THC- and CBD-containing products in addition to nicotine, but we don’t know exactly which additives or chemicals are causing the injury.

We feel the best advice to give folks is if you haven’t started vaping, don’t start. If you’re currently vaping you should make every effort to quit. If you’re currently smoking and are looking for alternatives or ways to quit smoking I would suggest using the evidence-based products that are already out on the market, in terms of nicotine patches, lozenges, gums and other medications that are available. CHI Health offers many smoking cessation classes near you if you are looking to quit smoking.

Hopefully, this will help to shed some light on the dangers of vaping and will help to leave you more informed.