Vaping and EVALI

By Vic Crain on July 7, 2024

Let's start with what manufacturers may not tell you.

Some vaping products contain very high levels of nicotine, placing the user at risk of nicotine addiction.
Some vaping products contain the elements, nickle, tin, lead and aluminum.
Some products contain flavorings such as diacetyl, which are linked to lung disease.

Put simply, in the words of researchers from Johns Hopkins University:

1: Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it's still not safe.(4)

EVALI is a formal medical term for "e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury". It's a default diagnosis when a known vaping user has difficultly breathing, abnormal blood chemistry and no other discernible causes.

"Abnormal blood chemistry" includes elevated levels of white blood cells, low-density lipoprotein, c-reactive protein (produced by the liver when inflammation is present in the body), ferritin (blood protein containing iron), D-dimer (protein resulting from dissolved blood clots) and procalcitonin (used in the creation of a hormone that controls the level of calcium in the blood).
CT scans show "ground glass" opacities in the lungs.
Some vaping ingredients have in patients been shown to induce chemical pneumonitis.

In one case study, a 30-day period of vaping was sufficient to require hospitalization for a 19-year-old medical receptionist.(5)

Like Covid-19, there are no studies regarding the long term impacts of vaping. The technology like the disease just hasn't been around long enough. However, the fact that chemicals in vaping can trigger changes in a large number of processes in the body should be concerning.

If you vape, you need to know the quality of the product you are using. Getting something from a friend doesn't cut it.

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