STAT Newsletter: Vitamin E Acetate May Be To Blame For Rash Of Vaping Related Illnesses.

[Rectify]

Health officials have identified a possible culprit behind the spate of vaping-related illnesses that have sickened thousands: vitamin E acetate.

The chemical — used as an additive or thickening agent in some vaping products — turned up in every sample of lung fluid collected from 29 patients with vaping-related illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. While vitamin E acetate is used in supplements and skin creams and does not seem to cause harm when swallowed or used topically, previous research suggests that inhaling vitamin E acetate might impair people’s lung function.

The finding marks a significant development in an investigation that has left federal and local health officials scrambling to find a cause as the number of vaping illnesses recorded nationally has continued to climb. Health officials said that the findings need to be confirmed, including through animal studies, and that it’s too soon to rule out other possible causes.

“These new findings are significant because for the first time, we have detected a potential toxin of concern — vitamin E acetate — in biologic samples,” said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC. But, she added, “there’s more work to do.”

There have been 2,051 confirmed and probable cases of the illnesses, dubbed EVALI, across 49 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There have been 40 deaths tied to the outbreak, which is believed to have started earlier this year.

Read the full story here.

 

[LabRat74]

Yeah it's actually just black market thc carts that caused the issue and we knew about the vit E thing ages ago the issue is the press and politicians jumped on it as a pot stirrer and everyone got carried away with non facts. Equating it to all vaping is the most intellectually dishonest stunt iv seen pulled since brexit.

 

[Rectify]

I didn't say that.

 

[LabRat74]

I didn't say that.

No, but 90% of media outlets did? and now theres a flavour ban.

 

[polymath]

Great, new WOMD... Vitamin E smoke bomb.

 

[sekio]

The story behind this is actually sickening, there was a company called Honey Cut which was knowingly selling this shit as a cutting agent for THC carts specifically designed to be thick and "nontoxic" so people could "extend" their THC supply even more. Not really any difference than jimmy down the lanes who buffs his shit out with baby laxative and Benadryl, except this guy came out with a brand name and all that. This wasn't just |"black market nobodies" doing this, a LOT of people were tricked into thinking "well, this is a professional company with a legit looking site, quality packaging, this is a vitamin, and it's food grade. the LD50 is high, they add this shit to cosmetics, and everyone else is using it anyway, what's the deal? Where's the harm in making extra money off these THC carts?"

When I buy a cart (I don't vape carts) I would expect at the very least a label with the contents in it. If you wanna pretend you're Food Grade, then act like it and label your ingredients so the consumer can be informed. I don't want to see anything but Cannabis extracts, honestly. Even adding PG/VG seems... unnecesary to me. Flavors and thickeners and diluents just edge the whole industry closer to the tobacco industry and its list of what, 599 different fucking compounds they might add to your smoke? Sure, they're all food safe, but we don't typically combust or vaporize food, we eat it, at temperatures usually below 100C and often below 30C.

This whole fuckaround with VitEAc actually reminds me of the "ginger Jake" or "jamaica ginger" poisonings back in Prohibition era, where many people were poisoned with tricresyl phosphate, which we now know to be a nerve toxin. There was a drink called Jamaica Ginger which was exempt from Prohibition restrictions on booze because it was supposed to have a certain amount of ginger solids left upon boiling the water and alcohol off. Well, some enterprising moonshiners asked their egghead buddies at MIT and came up with tricresyl phosphate: it would work well as a thick liquid that doesn't distill, and probably tastes nicer than ginger too. Unfortunately they did not realize it was meant for humans to drink (and in large amounts) so many people who chose Jamaica ginger as their tipple ended up getting chronic, incurable, nerve degeneration.

Or the time diethylene glycol (toxic antifreeze) was used as a diluent in an antibiotic syrup ... that actually was the incident that caused the formation of the FDA.