WAR ON VAPES
Donald Trump set to ban flavoured e-cigarettes after spate of deaths in the US
DONALD Trump has announced that he will be banning flavoured e-cigarettes, following a spate of vaping-related deaths.
The US President said vaping was a “new problem” - especially for children – after six deaths and 450 reported cases of lung illness across 33 states were tied to it.
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US Health Secretary Alex Azar said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would finalise a plan to take all non-tobacco flavours off the market.
Speaking at the White House, Trump his administration would implement strong rules to protect “innocent children” – like his 13-year-old son Barron.
He pointed to the influence of First Lady Melania, who tweeted this week that she was “deeply concerned about the growing epidemic of e-cigarette use in our children”.
Trump said: “We can't allow people to get sick and we can't have our youth be so affected.
“That's how the first lady got involved. She's got a son, together, that is a beautiful young man and she feels very, very strongly about it.
“People are going to watch what we're saying and parents are going be a lot tougher with respect to their children.”
How safe are e-cigarettes in the UK?
In the UK, e-cigarettes are tightly regulated for safety and quality.
They're not completely risk free, but they carry a small fraction of the risk of cigarettes.
E-cigarettes do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke.
The liquid and vapour contain some potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette smoke, but at much lower levels.
While nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes, it's relatively harmless.
Almost all of the harm from smoking comes from the thousands of other chemicals in tobacco smoke, many of which are toxic.
Nicotine replacement therapy has been widely used for many years to help people stop smoking and is a safe treatment.
There's no evidence so far that vaping causes harm to other people around you.
This is in contrast to secondhand smoke from smoking, which is known to be very harmful to health.
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Many of the 450 reported US cases are young people, with an average age of 19.
Michigan this month became the first US state to ban flavoured e-cigarettes.
The latest person to die was in their 50s and from Kansas.
They were in hospital "with symptoms that progressed rapidly", but also to have had a history of underlying health issues.
State officials said they don't have detailed information on the type of products the person was using.
It comes after officials in California confirmed the death of a 55-year-old man on Saturday.
He was one of 12 people in LA experiencing severe and sudden lung disease after vaping.
It followed the deaths of four e-cigarette users from Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Oregon passed away.
One teenager from Utah even claimed that that vaping everyday for three years left her in a coma after it caused her to develop a rare lung disease.
Maddie Nelson started feeling nauseous earlier this year but last month she began to experience intense back pain.
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The 18-year-old, of Utah, US, was rushed to hospital where her symptoms quickly worsened, reported.
Doctors found that she had acute eosinophilic pneumonia - a rare disease caused by a build-up of white blood cells in the lungs in response to inflammation.
She was placed on a ventilator after being unable to breathe on her own and put into a medically-induced coma for three days.
The UK versus USA - how vaping compares
TWO chemicals found in two popular vaping flavours could destroy lung function, experts have warned.
Inhaling the popcorn and caramel e-cig liquids could increase a vaper's risk of respiratory diseases, their findings suggest.
Popcorn flavoured e-cig liquid is especially harmful, thanks to the chemical diacetyl, which has been linked to "popcorn lung".
In the UK, diacetyl was banned in e-cigarette liquid under the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in 2016.
So, e-liquids sold in the UK shouldn’t contain diacetyl but if you get your liquid on holiday, you may well find that it includes it.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also probing 450 cases of lung conditions across 33 states that may have been caused by vaping.
Symptoms of the mysterious condition include chest pain, shortness of breath and vomiting - with some people ending up in intensive care on a ventilator for several weeks.
As a result, officials are now urging vapers to put the e-cigs down, reports.
Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles county public health director, said: "Stop vaping now.
"We’re issuing a warning to all residents about the use of these devices as potentially harmful to proper lung function."
British health experts have also raised concerns over the health risks of vaping - but Public Health England said they are not aware of any similar incidents in the UK.
Health investigators in the US are now trying to establish whether a particular toxin or substance is being added into products, including marijuana, or whether it stems from heavy usage.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes vape liquid containing THC - the psychoactive agent in cannabis - could be to blame and have issued a warning.
But many patients have said they have no knowledge about the substances they might have used - making treatment complicated.
People are now being urged not to buy bootleg products and to stop modifying devices to vape a mixture of substances.
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