A recent FDA report provides more evidence connecting vaping and seizures as well as to neurological damage from nicotine overdose and toxicity.

Since 2010, the agency says it has received nearly 130 reports of seizures and other symptoms that include fainting and tremors connected with the use of e-cigarettes. More troubling is the fact that the majority of these cases appear to have occurred in young people.

How Much Nicotine?

Combustible cigarettes have long been known to cause cancer and other respiratory damage such as emphysema and COPD, and users do suffer addiction to the nicotine contained in tobacco. However, cigarette smokers do not typically experience nicotine toxicity.

The number of reports on vaping and seizures point to one of the major differences between traditional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes: the amount of nicotine that is delivered. A single JUUL pod, which provides 200 “hits,” or inhalations, for the user contains approximately the same amount of nicotine as an entire pack of combustible cigarettes.

Dr. Pamela Ling, a professor at the University of California San Francisco Medical School, told NBC News that a person who smokes one pod per week for five weeks has essentially smoked the equivalent of a pack a week, or 100 cigarettes. “By that point, you’re considered an established smoker,” she says.

Of course, many teens and young people who vape are consuming far more than one pod for week. One JUUL user, posting on Reddit, wrote, “2 pods a day is not out of the realm of normal.”

Vaping and Seizures: How it Happens

Found in plants of the nightshade family, nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known to science. It is also a deadly toxin; commercially, it is used as an insecticide.

Once absorbed by the body, nicotine imitates acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, or naturally-occurring chemical that conveys messages from the brain to the nervous system and is involved in the activation of muscles. Any drug that impacts or amplifies the action of acetylcholine can cause convulsions and even paralysis.

It should therefore not be surprising that, since vape pods deliver nicotine in such prodigious amounts, users would be suffering severe neurological effects.

Are Vape Companies Liable?

Recent legal action claims that companies such as JUUL Labs bear responsibility for vaping and seizures. It is becoming apparent that many users, particularly teens and young adults, are woefully ignorant of just how much nicotine they are taking in. Dr. Ling told NBC News that many young users “…may not even know it [vape] contains nicotine.”

Earlier this summer, MarketWatch confirmed that suspicion when it reported that only 37 percent of teenage JUUL users are aware that vape pods contain any nicotine at all.

In Alabama, a 20-year-old woman has filed a lawsuit against JUUL Labs, claiming that she has developed a “severe” addiction to nicotine since she began using the product while in high school, and now suffers from mood disorders. Hers and other lawsuits charge JUUL with failure to warn about the effects of nicotine and misleading customers about the amount of nicotine contained in the product.

Join a Free JUUL E-Cigarette Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or your child suffered seizures after vaping with a JUUL e-cigarette, you may benefit from participating in a free JUUL class action lawsuit investigation.

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