Number 5 Simah Herman 18-year-old Simah Herman was one of the victims
of a violent lung disease outbreak which we’ll explore in depth, further down our list.
Doctors determined that vaping had been the root cause of her illness, as it had been
the case for several hundred people since the spring of 2019.
Herman had been vaping regularly for two years and had used a variety of devices and flavors.
She’d reportedly take a hit every 15 minutes and spent the money she made babysitting on
vaping products.
Her health gradually deteriorated and she lost over 50 pounds.
She had problems with her appetite and was feeling nauseous but it never occurred to
her that vaping was responsible for her symptoms.
Then, in August, her health broke down completely.
Her lungs failed and she was rushed to the hospital.
She spent 48 hours in a medically-induced coma and was put on a ventilator to aid her
breathing.
Fortunately, Herman awoke on August the 29th.
Within seconds of coming to, and with the breathing tube still down her throat, the
teenager posted a picture of her online holding up a handwritten sign.
It said “I want to start a no vaping campaign”.
The teenager’s initiative was met with resistance by the online vape community.
Some even claimed that she was a “fake patient” hired by Big Tobacco.
Nevertheless, others, even celebrities, supported Herman’s efforts of raising awareness about
the dangers of vaping.
What Is It?
Vaping refers to the act of using an electronic cigarette as a way of simulating conventional
smoking.
It doesn’t involve burning tobacco but still maintains some of the behavioral aspects of
smoking, such as inhalation and the hand-to-mouth action.
Instead of smoke, e-cigarette users inhale aerosol, which is commonly called vapor.
E-cigarette designs will typically include a mouthpiece, a battery and a liquid storage
area as well as a heating element and a microprocessor.
Unlike the traditional combustion of tobacco, the battery-powered vaporizer has a heating
element that atomizes the liquid solution.
The mixture most often contains nicotine in liquid form as well as glycerin, propylene
glycol, flavorings and other ingredients.
Because e-cigarettes aren’t regulated in many countries, the contents of the e-liquid
may change often.
It may include harmful substances that are unknown or undisclosed to the user.
Most people who start vaping are motivated by a desire to give up smoking, believing
it to be a safer alternative to cigarettes.
Others do it for recreational purposes or as a way to circumvent smoke-free laws.
There have been numerous studies on the dangers and benefits of vaping, but an overall conclusion
hasn’t been reached.
Even though they’re marketed and generally regarded as safer than traditional cigarettes,
vaping devices as a whole still have dangerous aspects to them.
There’ve been several incidents of malfunctioning and exploding e-cigarettes as well as health
complications that have been linked to vaping.
Number 4 Leor Dematov In April 2016, Leor Dematov suffered a cut
to his cornea and severe damage to his hands in a vaping-related incident at a mall in
Brooklyn, New York City.
The 14-year-old was at Kings Plaza mall, when one of the workers from a vaping kiosk offered
him a device to try out.
According to the laws in place at the time, selling an e-cigarette to Dematov would’ve
been illegal since he was a minor.
The vendor showed the teenager various models and then gave him a device to hold in his
hands.
As Dematov was holding the vape pen, which was connected to the store’s battery, it
exploded.
The teenager was taken to the emergency room.
He’d suffered potentially permanent damage to his hands and was blinded in his left eye.
According to the teen’s doctors it was still possible, in time, for him to recover his
sight.
Since he’d been illegally targeted by a vendor, Dematov’s father expressed plans
to sue.
One of the staff members from Plaza Vapes said they were aware of the incident but the
store’s management refused to comment.
Where Is It Located?
The earliest e-cigarette patent can be traced to American Herbert A. Gilbert.
In 1963, he designed a “smokeless non-tobacco cigarette”.
It didn’t involve the use of nicotine and produced flavored steam.
Although similar in design to today’s devices, it didn’t receive much attention since smoking
was still widely popular at the time.
It was Chinese pharmacist and inventor Hon Lik, who designed the first commercially successful
e-cigarette, in 2003.
Since the rise in popularity of e-cigarettes, in the mid-2000s, vaping across the globe
has risen exponentially.
There are hundreds of brands and the global sales figure in 2014 alone was around $7 billion.
Approximately 95% of all e-cigarettes are made in China.
As of the making of this video, China also has the highest number of e-cigarette users.
When compared to the rest of the world, vaping is more common in the US and Europe.
As of 2018, more than 10 million people worldwide vape daily.
Vaping among adolescents has steadily increased since e-cigarettes were first introduced.
Regulating and legislating e-cigarettes around the world has been challenging and that’s
mainly because they overlap with existing medical drug policies and tobacco laws.
As such, some countries have no regulation whatsoever, while others have chosen to ban
e-cigarettes completely.
Brazil, Singapore, India and Uruguay fall into the latter category.
In Japan, these devices are illegal so the market uses heat-not-burn tobacco products
as an alternative to smoking.
In the EU, there’s been tighter regulation in recent years which limits advertising and
also reduces the amount of nicotine and flavors used in liquids.
As of the making of this video, in most EU states, the purchaser of an e-cigarette needs
to be 18 or older.
In the US, the Food and Drug Administration federal agency has extended its power to include
e-cigarettes, the liquid they use and all other associated products.
In countries where vaping is legal, it’s typically prohibited on public transportation
but allowed in other public places.
Number 3 Joseph Cavins In 2016, California-native Joseph Cavins was
the victim of a horrifying accident that left him disfigured for life.
The 63-year-old was vaping at home while working on his computer.
At one point, Cavins sat the vape pen down and went to retrieve a pen from a bookshelf.
That’s when the device violently exploded, sending pieces of shrapnel 9 feet high into
the ceiling and starting a fire.
All that Cavins remembered of the incident was feeling like he’d been struck in the
side of the head.
Pieces of the exploding device struck him in the face, damaging his eye and facial bones.
His wife extinguished the fire then took Cavins to the hospital.
His eye had been obliterated and eventually had to be taken out and replaced with a prosthetic.
For the rest of his life, Cavins would have to wear an eyepatch.
The rest of the injuries on his face were treated and would only leave behind minor
scars.
One expert commented on the incident and argued that the battery was most likely to blame.
The device was manufactured cheaply and in a dirty environment so intrusive particles
most likely got into the battery itself, making it more susceptible to overheating and exploding.
Chargers were another cited issue since most of them don’t have safety mechanisms to
prevent overheating.
Today’s video was requested by Emma Santana, if you have any other topics you’d like
to learn about subscribe and let us know in the comments section below.
How Will It Kill You?
There are numerous aspects to consider when it comes to the potentially harmful effects
of e-cigarettes.
It’s already well-established that tobacco smoking wreaks havoc on overall health.
While there is some indication that vaping helps smokers quit, it’s still not proven
to be more or less effective than conventional cessation methods such as nicotine patches.
Dual use is a frequent occurrence, where people start vaping but still continue to smoke traditional
cigarettes.
This may enhance the negative effects from both practices.
Although generally viewed as safer than smoking, the risks associated with vaping are also
plentiful.
One of the most striking is related to severe device malfunctions which can cause fires
or explosions.
Design flaws, increased battery temperature or unsuitable chargers can lead to explosions.
Should the device be in the user’s mouth at the time, the impact can be devastating
and result in broken teeth, torn tissue or even death.
There’s also a danger, particularly for small children, of ingesting or touching the
e-liquid.
It can result in nicotine poisoning, which can be fatal.
Even in the absence of such incidents, second-hand inhalation may still affect the health of
children.
There are still many unknowns about vaping and the long-term effect it has on health.
Harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde or carbonyl compounds can be inadvertently produced
when the heating elements reacts with the liquid.
Vapor, in some cases, has been found to contain heavy metals, toxicants and carcinogens.
The ubiquitous issue is that the full contents of e-liquid are rarely disclosed and therefore
its cytotoxic potential is unknown.
Therefore, vapor can contain toxic chemicals not found in tobacco smoke.
However, severe adverse events, including death are reportedly low and typically less
serious than with tobacco smoke.
Still, some of the health issue may include headaches, blurry vision, vomiting, nausea,
coughing or abdominal pain.
Severe adverse reaction may come in the form of chest pain, disorientation, seizure or
hypotension.
The overall problems associated with nicotine addiction are still a significant concern.
The presence of nicotine still holds gateway potential towards other drugs and, ironically,
smoking tobacco as well.
Number 2 William Brown 24-year-old William Brown lost his life in
January, 2019, when a vaping device exploded in his face.
The Texas native decided to try vaping and bought an e-cigarette from a store called
Smoke & Vape DZ, in North Fort Worth.
According to his grandmother, Brown was told that the specific vape pen would help with
his asthma.
After purchasing the device, he tried it out in his car.
As he turned it on, the vape pen instantly overheated and exploded.
Shrapnel was sent into Brown’s neck and severed his left carotid artery.
Brown crawled onto the sidewalk, trying to get help, prior to collapsing.
He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was pronounced dead two days later.
According to the medical examiner, the cause of death had been “penetrating trauma from
exploding vaporizer pen”.
Investigators suspected that the explosion had been caused by a faulty battery.
One staff member from the vape store claimed that Brown hadn’t bought the device there.
How to Survive?
There’s a worldwide vaping community and the practice has the type of mass appeal that
could challenge the market position of combustible tobacco.
However, global regulation efforts on vaping are still ongoing.
There are still certain approaches towards increasing individual safety.
Higher temperatures basically allow for more chemical reactions to take place so try using
a temperature control mod.
Diacetyl and acetyl propionyl may provide flavor, but they’re also know to damage
lungs so avoid them to minimize risks.
Smoking unflavored e-liquid is actually an even better approach since it’s not yet
clear which chemical compounds pose the greatest risks.
Some recommend using higher nicotine doses and vaping less as well as limiting the amount
of actual inhalation.
Blowing large clouds of vapor is known in the community as “cloud chasing”.
The negative health implications of e-cigarettes are still being studied, so it’s best to
inhale less until more is known.
Don’t “dry burn” coils, meaning don’t activate them without the presence of e-liquid.
When doing this, temperatures can rise to nearly 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
This can affect the structural integrity of the metal and release more of it into the
vapor.
Study a device properly prior to purchasing it and make sure you buy from a trusted manufacturer
that’s already well-established in the market.
Even if it may end up costing more, it’s a device that you’ll likely use daily and
one that impacts health, so it’s arguably worth it.
The same precautions should be taken when buying e-liquid.
Making your own E-cigarettes or liquid should be done after extensive research to limit
potential toxicity or device malfunction.
Number 1 2019 Lung Disease Outbreak In 2019, a severe lung disease outbreak affected
vapers all over the US.
It started out in April and the first states to be affected were Illinois and Wisconsin.
Prior to the outbreak in the US, similar incidents of vaping-related lung disorders had been
reported in Japan and the UK.
Doctors in the US claimed that some of the victims’ lungs looked like they’d been
through chemical warfare.
The injuries reportedly resembled those of mustard gas victims from World War I.
Most of them were males with ages between 18 and 34.
As of December 17, 2019, the death toll was placed at 54, with victims hailing from 27
states.
Over 2,500 cases of hospitalization had been reported across the country.
The CDC responded to the crisis and cited chemical exposure as the probable cause.
The majority of samples tested out by the FDA in their investigation were identified
as containing tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component in cannabis.
Most of the lung fluid samples also tested positive for vitamin E acetate.
Research has found that, when inhaled, the synthetic compound can disrupt normal lung
function.
The vape oils had been diluted by thickening agents to bulk up the potency of vape cartridges.
While vitamin E acetate is the most likely culprit found so far, officials haven’t
ruled out other chemicals and toxicants as possible causes.
The e-cigarette industry blamed the lung injuries on illicit vaping liquids.
The CDC recommended that people avoid buying vaping products on the street and to refrain
from using THC oil.
As of the making of this video, efforts are still being made to contain the crisis.
Thanks for watching!
Would you rather have a vape pen explode in your mouth or get kicked in the face by The
Rock?
Let us know in the comments section below!