The CDC currently estimates more than 1,000 cases of lung-related illnesses across the country related to e-cigarettes. The cases have developed over years, and doctors have learned a lot over that time about vaping. But one pulmonologist worries about what we still don鈥檛 know.
Dr. Mark Millard with Baylor Foster Lung Care Center in Dallas says the first case in the Dallas-Fort Worth area appeared three or four years ago. It was a young man brought to the emergency room who ultimately died of an acute lung injury.
鈥淎nd the only thing that could be found was that he was vaping something that he had bought from a mom-and-pop operation, or vaping shop, out in the Mid Cities,鈥� Millard said.
The doctor who cared for him was convinced there was something in the vaping substance itself. But the ingredients were the secret of the shop that鈥檚 believed to have gone out of business.
Dr. Millard says what is known today about ingredients in e-cigarettes is reason for worry.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
Two dangerous e-cigarette ingredients: 鈥淭here are a number of substances 鈥� the popcorn flavoring diacetyl can cause lung injury. You can have safe ingredients. For example, propylene glycol is the diluent in many of the commerically available e-cigarettes.鈥�
Diluent? 鈥淭he diluent it's packaged with, it's dissolved in. The nicotine is dissolved in propylene glycol. At low voltages, that's probably relatively innocuous. But as we've gotten more sophisticated, moved to second- and third-generation devices, as the voltage has increased, what we've seen is propylene glycol actually turns into formaldehyde at really high temperatures. And so if you've got it dialed up to high, you're in trouble and even the simple vegetable oils at the same thing they turn into acetaldehyde.鈥�
What worries you most about vaping? 鈥淲e have no clue what the long-term risks of vaping are. We do know that the respiratory system has never seen this before. We haven't had time to figure out what this does to the surface lining of the lungs. It's not just the e-cigarette. If it were only the e-cigarette, you can argue it's probably safer to use an e-cigarette than a pack a day of tobacco. But beyond that when you start putting stuff that you can find off the drugstore shelf because it might taste good or it might smell good or it might make you feel good, or buy off the street, we have no clue what we're getting into.鈥�
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