by Eleanor Ball
There has been a sudden upsurge in cases of lung injury associated with vaping, the Centers for Disease Control reports. But why? How does vaping cause such injury? A recent study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds some light on the subject, revealing the potential identity of the chemical that might be causing these lung problems.
The perpetrator appears to be a substance called vitamin E acetate, a chemical additive in many vaping products. When heated in a vaping device, vitamin E acetate decomposes and releases several dangerous chemicals. One that may emerge is the extremely toxic gas ketene. Ketene has been found to harm the lungs and central nervous system in animal studies. Decomposing vitamin E acetate also produces two well-known and thoroughly-studied carcinogens, or cancer-causing chemicals. One is benzene, which is linked to leukemia, bone marrow failure, and cardiovascular disease. There are also some carcinogenic alkenes, which are essentially the one of the chemical mechanisms behind the cancer-causing nature of substances like tobacco and mustard gas.
Tests recently performed by the CDC on those hospitalized for complications from vaping support the theory that vitamin E acetate is the culprit. While vitamin E acetate has been found in lung fluid samples of patients from widespread areas, it has not been found in the lungs of those who are not suffering from this ailment.
The nearly three thousand hospitalizations and 68 deaths, which included patients as young as 15, should serve as an acute reminder that vaping is not the risk-free smoking alternative many people have been led to believe. As cigarette consumption has fallen over the years, the tobacco industry has evolved to market vaping as a healthier alternative despite lacking proof to back up that claim. Vaping’s novelty means it’s impossible to determine if long-term use leads to lung cancer or other lung issues the way decades of smoking can lead to lung cancer. The newness of vaping also means that not all the chemicals inside vape products have been thoroughly tested. Although it’s often difficult to make scientifically-backed claims about extreme dangers of vaping, much of the media is still guilty of not approaching the topic with a skeptical enough eye. They often treat it more as an annoying teenage fad that smells up high school bathrooms and comes in funny flavors than a potential public health issue. As more and more studies come out that reveal the toxic nature of vaping, it’s more critical than ever that we frame this issue as what it truly is: neither a safe alternative to smoking nor an eye-catching teenage annoyance, but a dangerous public health uncertainty.
Eleanor Ball is a GW Scope staff writer and junior humanities editor for the George Washington Undergraduate Review. She is currently researching 17th century Flemish art and the relationships between period innovations in science and aesthetics. A freshman studying international affairs and public health, she is also on the board of GW Shakespeare and a member of GlobeMed and the Politics & Values program.
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