Finally, a wave of lung diseases affecting American vapers seems to have an explanation. The majority of these patients had vitamin E acetate in their lungs, according to a study published Friday, December 20, by researchers from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirming the first elements of the investigation revealed in November.
The epidemic, which has affected more than 2,500 people since June and which has caused the death of 54 patients in the United States, has provoked in the country a debate on the dangerousness of the electronic cigarette. This surge since June is now down, after a peak in September, according to statistics from American patients.
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Essentially illicit refills
The study of 51 vapers with lung problems found that 48 had vitamin E acetate in their lungs, although this substance was not detected in a control group of individuals. in good health. The analyzes, conducted in 16 American states, counted only two individuals with other potentially toxic products in their lungs.
Simply put, vitamin E is the cause of lung problems for "A vast majority of patients", Bloomberg news agency Anne Schuchat, the deputy director of the CDC, who conducted the study, said.
Vitamin E acetate is used as a diluent additive in a type of refill, often illegal and sold under the coat, as it contains THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. Normally harmless, vitamin E can be purchased as a swallow capsule or as an oil to apply to the skin. But, in the case of vaping, the mechanism that links vitamin E and lung damage is not yet well understood.
Anne Schuchat wishes, however, to clarify that such a study does not show the non-dangerousness of other substances used in electronic cigarettes. "There could be other epidemics" similar, she added.
In a parallel study, CDC researchers counted 31 patients affected by electronic cigarette problems who had to return to the hospital a second time, and seven who died after hospitalization. The CDC now recommends that patients be re-screened within 48 hours of their first hospital visit, rather than waiting a week or two as previously recommended.
Different products in France
In France, which has three million vapers, Public Health France (SPF) has set up, in collaboration with other health agencies, "A device for reporting cases of severe pneumonitis occurring in vapers". "No deaths have been reported to date, nor any epidemic phenomenon", adds the agency.
The composition of vaping products marketed in the country "Has nothing to do with those marketed in other parts of the world", said Roger Genet, director general of the National Health Security Agency (ANSES), on September 23 on Franceinfo, reassuring many of the vapers. In France, "All manufacturers must deposit the full composition of their products", he insisted. The regulations are, indeed, stricter in Europe, with a nicotine level limited to 20 mg / ml (up to 60 mg in the United States), France even banned the sale to minors in 2014.
Wider concern than vitamin E
According to a different statistical study published Monday, December 16, consumers of electronic cigarettes increased their risk of suffering from the same chronic lung diseases as smokers, regardless of the presence or not of vitamin E in the e-liquid.
It shows that vapers were 30% more likely to develop chronic lung diseases such as bronchitis, asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared to people who do not vaporize. When people smoke and smoke at the same time, which is common, the risk is tripled.
"We concluded that e-cigarettes were harmful in themselves, with effects that occur independently of conventional tobacco consumption"said one of the authors, Stanton Glatz, professor of medicine and director of the University of California's San Francisco tobacco research center.
