More than a thousand people have been diagnosed with a mysterious lung illness that has resulted in nearly two dozen deaths, all of which have been linked to negative health effects of e cigarettes.

When e cigarettes entered the market several years ago, the rumor was they were a safer alternative to cigarettes because the e cigs didn’t contain tobacco. Today, Juul, the top-selling e cigarette brand, sells vaping pods that contain as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes.

Even though vaping and smoking are products that are legally sold exclusively to adults, teens are finding it easy to get vaping products in their hands. If a kid grabs a cigarette out of a pack of smokes, the kid has to make sure he doesn’t crush the cigarette.

The entire Juul unit looks like a USB drive and is easy to shove in a pocket or in a side zippered area of a backpack, so if a teen gets her hands on a Juul vaping mechanism it’s often that no one will notice. However, because Juul works by the user replacing disposable cartridges (pods) into the Juul e cigarette, the device itself is worthless without replacement pods. This is behind the focus on banning pod sales.

Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, told Wired.com that whereas kids used to smoke anywhere except school, kids are vaping almost exclusively at school. The combination of a lack of the stale cigarette smoke smell and the kids’ ability to hold in the vapor without releasing a telltale cloud are helping kids get away with using Juul in the school bathrooms.

Fed up with the Juul epidemic taxing their resources, three school districts have filed a lawsuit against Juul because of the time and money they have had to devote to fight the epidemic, which they say places students at danger. The New York Times reported school districts in St. Charles, Mo., Olathe, Kan., and Long Island, N.Y. filed the lawsuit because they allege Juul unabashedly marketed the nicotine-laden, fruit-flavored products to youth.

Negative Health Effects of E Cigarettes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most patients (but not all) who have been stricken by the mysterious lung illness have reported using THC-containing vape products. THC is a component of marijuana that is responsible for the “high” feeling, and there is some evidence that some bootleg marijuana vaping juices have been tainted with hydrogen cyanide, according to lab tests commissioned by NBC News.

Of samples tested, three bought at legal dispensaries in California were free of heavy metals, pesticides or solvents such as vitamin E. However, 13 of the 15 black market THC samples did contain vitamin E. Doctors have speculated that breathing in vitamin E oil from marijuana-based substances not meant to be smoked or vaped could be linked to the new lung illness.

Ten of the unregulated THC samples tested positive for myclobutanil, which is a fungicide that turns into hydrogen cyanide when it’s burned. NBC News reported CannaSafe Vice President of Operations Antonio Frazier said that finding a substance that shows people could be inhaling cyanide is “very disturbing” and is definitely going to harm the lungs.

Earlier this year, even prior to the mysterious and potentially lethal lung illness making headlines, reports of seizures after the use of e cigarettes were reported. Seizures, dizziness or nausea can be indications of nicotine poisoning, and the amount of nicotine delivered in vaping is often more concentrated than that delivered in smoking a cigarette.

Both the FDA and the CDC say researchers do not know what the long-term negative health effects of e cigarettes may be. If you or someone you love has been injured by use of e cigarettes, you may benefit from speaking with a lawyer.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.