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Google News 09/07: Researchers investigate vaping-related illnesses
Social fads have a way of taking our culture by storm — think of the striking explosion of fidget spinners, for example—and the rise of vapes and e-cigarettes have been an exceptionally dramatic case. The global vapor product market is now worth 22.6 billion dollars, up from 4.2 billion dollars just five years ago, and continues to grow in the United States. They say that where there’s smoke, there’s fire: but these days, where there’s smoke (and the lingering scent of mangoes or cotton candy), you’ll typically find a teenage kid puffing on a vape.
The ubiquity of electronic smoking devices is comparable to that of cigarettes in the previous century — but as we always hear, they’re safer than cigarettes. Now, ‘safer than cigarettes’ is a pretty low standard, but it’s nonetheless true, and e-cigs in particular can actually serve a good purpose when they’re used to help cigarette smokers transition away from their deadly habit.
Today’s article focuses on this question of safety, reviewing a recent multi-state outbreak of respiratory illness that has been associated with e-cig and vaping devices. We’ll explore what the symptoms are, whether specific causes have been identified, and what to do about products for which scientific data is still relatively sparse.
