It started with this tweet I passed by on my social media rounds sharing a case report about a 22-year old male without any known preexisting medical conditions dying of acute lung injury and heart attack. A risk factor identified was the 2 year history of vaping.
https://twitter.com/DrMeredithGT/status/1793159001129292054
Since it's a case report, you'll be able to see the documentation about this provided within the tweet's link. He developed vaping‐use associated lung injury (EVALI), which is a lung condition that is caused by the chemicals from vape.
I'm not going to bombard this post with medical jargons and keep it as a simple trivia. The heated vapors from vape irritate the airways and depresses the natural protection barriers of the body similar to how tobacco products work but this time it's less potent than tobacco products (as advertised). Another mechanism is messing up with the body's surfactant production.
Surfactant is the stuff that makes it easy to do gas exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide when breathing. It loosens the surface tension of water within the lungs and let's gas exchange happen with less effort. Water is produced in the lungs and surface tension is that property where water tends to stick together and form a resistance.
Think of your palms as oxygen then press in on a surface of water, under normal conditions, the resistance you feel is easily overcome and your palms just sink through, surfactant is the stuff that makes your palms push through the surface with less tension and less of it would feel like pressing against the wall.
That's one way to imagine how surfactant works on the lungs. A disruption to this regulation can be caused by killing the cells that produce the surfactant (type II pneumocytes) or hastening the process of eliminating it. Vape seems to do the former.
Anything in excess is poison that's why medicinal drugs have a therapeutic index where a normal range.
In 2019, the first case of EVALI was recorded after a 16-year-old girl who used a vape and a traditional cigarette at the same time felt severe shortness of breath.
In July 2022, the Republic Act No. 11900, The Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act was implemented which puts age restrictions for people who buy vape which should be above 18 years old.
However, the recent news as of March 2024 is that the Department of Health (DOH) supports banning of using disposable vapes due to its harmful effects not only to our health but also in the environment. There is still no updated news about the banning of vapes.
Overall, the continuous increase of EVALI cases reported in the country (Philippines) is alarming especially since there are currently seven EVALI cases nationwide where most of them are aging between 20-25 years old.
Why do people still consume what kills them? just my opinion and mine alone, but facts don't really change people even if everyone already knew that smoking tobacco is just slowly poisoning their bodies, it still feels good and addictive.
That's just part of human nature to be irrational and refraining doing the right thing despite knowing it's good for them. Vaping marketed as a safer alternative from the same companies that sell you tobacco is likely a survival attempt as a business. Vaping appeals more to the younger folks... because the older target customers are dying out.
Thanks for your time.