After over 2700 cases in less than a year alongside 27 reported deaths, cannabis vaping was placed in a bad spotlight in 2019. What started out with nicotine, the act of vaping progressed to cannabis, and now more and more people are coming out expressing their concerns regarding it. So what’s going on in the world of vaping now? While some research says that vaping is less harmful than smoking, opinions are split as to whether vaping cannabis is good for you. Read on to learn more about the truths regarding the vaping crisis and the current state of the cannabis vaping market.
What Exactly is The Vaping Crisis?
The term vaping crisis became prominent after almost 800 odd Americans were diagnosed with various respiratory diseases in 2019. There were only 14 reported deaths during the time and a few disturbing stories that led lawmakers to question the safety of vaping. One story being an Illinois teenager who was reported to be having a pair of lungs that looked similar to those of a seventy-year-old.
These cases got so severe that the US FDA released a statement warning all Americans to be cautious of vaping cannabis. Subsequently, cannabis vapes took a massive plunge in their value and sales. So much so that the market reportedly went down 15% over seven days. As the number of affected individuals kept growing the CDC urged the public to quit vaping all together till more research was done on the subject.
What Does The Term EVALI Mean?
EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury) is a term that was invented to classify the various health issues that arose due to vaping. This is exclusive to e-cigarettes and vaping. Essentially, the EVALI outbreak is what brought vaping into the limelight.
What Caused The EVALI Outbreak?
The vaping crisis of 2019 caused research institutes all over the world to conduct studies to pinpoint the cause of vaping-associated lung injuries. Some of the results of these studies point to a wide variety of vape-related chemicals as the cause. The main offender is vitamin E acetate. This was linked to a large percentage of cases as the primary cause of EVALI. After taking lung fluid samples from patients, vitamin E acetate was found to be present in them. The most concerning point was that vitamin E acetate was not found in the lung fluid samples of people that weren’t diagnosed. However, experts say that vitamin E acetate might not be the only cause of EVALI, but rather a high amount of chemicals were listed down as dangerous by both the CDC and the FDA.
Inability to Diagnose
The ability to diagnose a disease plays a major role in preventing harm. At the moment there are no methods to reliably diagnose EVALI in a patient. Meaning EVALI remains an ambiguous term that is diagnosed through the process of elimination. That being said, EVALI currently shares its symptoms with other respiratory diseases such as shortness of breath, chest/heart pain nausea, dizziness, and fever. Ultimately it’s hard to classify whether or not patients were harmed because of vaping, or were simply predisposed to certain respiratory afflictions.
Is Vaping Cannabis Safe Now?
A lot of effort has been taken to make vaping safer. And, since EVALI was most common with THC cartridges, most companies test the chemicals given off by a vaporizer before they are available to the general public. Additionally, authorities have banned the use of harmful chemicals to increase the volatility of THC cartridges and Vitamin E acetate has been removed from its compositions.
Another thing to note is that when you roll up a joint or take a hit from a bong, the act of burning the cannabis flower releases some amount of carcinogens and tar. This type of chemical reaction is otherwise known as combustion. Vaping on the other hand happens at a much lower temperature than occurs just below the point of combustion. Therefore, vaporization creates a smoother and healthier intoxication without the added toxic compounds like carcinogens or tar.
One of the main causes of the vaping crisis was poorly built cannabis vapes, most of which are from the black market. There have only been a very few cases where the user has been using a legal dispensary licensed vape. Certain states even placed bans on vapes till all counterfeit Blackmarket models were weeded out. Since counterfeits are very similar to the original dispensary products, authorities have advised users to buy only from registered dispensaries.
Positive Results About the Vaping Crisis
The positive side of the vaping crisis led to more precautions and regulations being placed within the vaping market, making vapes generally safer than smoking cannabis. Furthermore, the number of ER admissions related to EVALI is almost null. And while the jury is still out as to whether or not vaping is safer than traditional forms of smoking cannabis, many studies point to vaping being easier on the lungs.
Naked Cannabis is proud to be Canada’s trusted resource for safe cannabis and THC vapes. If you would like to shop our collection, check out that page on our online dispensary.
