A new report could well imperil the efforts of electronic cigarette advocates to push safety and health benefits as the reason for smokers to switch sides. The Agence France-Presse reported that a Spanish man was the second recorded medical incident that got afflicted with a disease apparently caused by excessive use of electronic cigarettes.
The media reported that the patient was identified as a 50-year-old man was admitted to a hospital in the township of A Coruna for treatment of a separate illness. The man complained about problems he was having on the lungs and has since been treated and now out of the hospital, said AFP.
The case is the second incident where a person got contracted with a disease presumably from the use of electronic cigarettes. This casts doubts on the ability of vapes to really help smokers get better deals on their smoking. At the same time the news bolsters the position of anti-vaping groups that there is no truth on the ability of vapes to really shield smokers from further harm.
Electronic cigarettes have been around since the late 1990s after it was invented by a Chinese pharmacist. Vapes, the alternate term for electronic cigarettes, are battery-operated devices that delivers nicotine and removes all the nasty chemicals that are found in burning tobacco. Smoking tobacco cigarettes is an international pandemic. The World Health Organization states that around six million smokers die each year. About a billion people smoking and are exposed to various health risks such as cancer, lung problems, heart disease and even strokes just to name a few.
The new report captures a problem where the local hospital characterizes the medical condition as exogenous lipoid pneumonia due to excessive use of electronic cigarettes. The disease is alleged to be caused by a vegetable-based ingredient in the e-liquid used in vaping nicotine into the body by way of an electronic cigarette. The pneumonia was discovered and has been treated as the patient has been discharged following recovery.
Electronic cigarette industry representatives quickly dismiss the new report saying that getting one or two medical conditions apparently linked to vaping do not mean anything. In fact Alejandro Rodriguez, speaking to AFP said that there is no real evidence that links the apparent pneumonia case to vaping. Rodriguez is the spokesperson for the National Electronic Cigarette Association an umbrella organization of vaping industry members.
It is not about a knee-jerk reaction to an isolated case. It is about how vapes have demonstrated that there is a viable alternative to smoking that can help smokers get rid of their addiction and eventually wean away from combustible tobacco. In the 10 years or so existence of vaping, there are only two cases reported so far that are related to vaping and both do not have clear links to vape use.
Electronic cigarettes have increasingly been popular throughout the world. The endorsement of celebrities and the ubiquity of the product pushed the sales that reached $2.5 billion in 2013 from a paltry $500 million the year before. It is estimated that electronic cigarette sales will double in 2015 from 2013. In ten years, it is expected that electronic cigarettes would overtake tobacco in terms of sales.
Anti-vaping proponents say that there are more to electronic cigarettes than meets the eye. They are saying that vapes do have risks involved including unknown long-term health risks and even providing a way for young people to get involved with smoking.
Most of the apprehensions of anti-vapers remain speculations or even untested theories at best. Vaping aficionados are saying that the truth is in the pudding. Data show that people that have switch to vaping are slowly contributing to the decline of tobacco use. This means smokers are getting less exposed to the harmful chemicals that are in tobacco. At the same time the reduction of nicotine can add towards helping smokers to wean from their addiction and towards quitting tobacco forever.
Vaping groups say banning vapes can lead to problems that can result to numerous deaths as smokers will no longer have an alternative to smoking. Banning vapes is a certified recipe for disaster that can lead to more deaths than what is being recorded today.