Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A person has died from a vaping-related condition

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 174 posts

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#151

Post by leetcrew »

jahewson wrote: post #11
stjohnswarts wrote: post #3

It's waaaaaaaayyyyy early to blame this on "vape lung". Always be skeptical of people who have an agenda to eliminate something.

Some skeptic’s questions: 1) which people? 2) what agenda?

frankly I don't know, but the US seems to be taking a very different approach than other western countries. most countries in Europe seem to be taking a much more measured approach, with some of the state health agencies unequivocally recommending vapes for smoking cessation.

generally, the US seems to be much more permissive towards citizens making bad health decisions (including much tamer warnings on cigarette packs) so I think it's worth asking why vaping is an exception. it makes me at least a little suspicious, although I'm not sure who to point the finger at now that big tobacco companies are acquiring stakes in vape companies.

as a final aside, consider how absurd it is that vapes are banned in SF but you can still buy actual cigarettes at any convenience store.

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#152

Post by leetcrew »

roywiggins wrote: post #147
leetcrew wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> marketing vaping to kids like juul does do/did they actually do this? I did a quick Google search and I can find a lot of articles making this claim but the only evidence given is that they have twenty-somethings and bright colors in their ads. if this is "marketing to kids", then that bar seems awfully low.

> Last summer, with public concern about teenage vaping growing, Juul Labs paid a charter school organization in Baltimore $134,000 to set up a five-week summer camp to teach children healthy lifestyles. > The curriculum was created by Juul — maker of the very vaping devices that were causing the most alarm among parents, health experts and public officials. > In April 2017, a Juul representative visited the Dwight S…

>> In April 2017, a Juul representative visited the Dwight School in New York City to meet with students — with no teachers present — and told them the company’s e-cigarettes were “totally safe.”

this one is pretty damning, but it's only one occurrence. I doubt NYT would have held back if they had any more such anecdotes to offer.

as for the rest of the article, the education programs seem a bit sketchy, but they could just as easily be a poorly conceived PR campaign.

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#153

Post by DanBC »

leetcrew wrote: post #152
roywiggins wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last summer, with public concern about teenage vaping growing, Juul Labs paid a charter school organization in Baltimore $134,000 to set up a five-week summer camp to teach children healthy lifestyles. > The curriculum was created by Juul — maker of the very vaping devices that were causing the most alarm among parents, health experts and public officials. > In April 2017, a Juul representative visited the Dwight S…

>> In April 2017, a Juul representative visited the Dwight School in New York City to meet with students — with no teachers present — and told them the company’s e-cigarettes were “totally safe.” this one is pretty damning, but it's only one occurrence. I doubt NYT would have held back if they had any more such anecdotes to offer. as for the rest of the article, the education programs seem a bit sketchy, but they cou…

> but they could just as easily be a poorly conceived PR campaign.

We have decades of experience with terrible tobacco and alcohol companies and that's pretty persuasive that Juul knew what they were doing and didn't care.

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#154

Post by mistermann »

otakucode wrote: post #125
WillPostForFood wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article has a sentence touching on it, but other sources that almost all these cases of vaping related hospitalizations are from vaping THC, so the sourcing/manufacturing of the product is highly suspect. Who knows what drug dealers are using.

It bothers me greatly to read so many news stories that have conspicuous absences of factual information. If there was a legitimately dangerous product on the market it would be critically important to share exactly what products, brands, etc are affected in what regions. Imagine if we woke up to news stories saying eggs were contaminated by salmonella. And nothing else. Just a blanket fearmongering piece about eggs…

> It bothers me greatly to read so many news stories that have conspicuous absences of factual information. If there was a legitimately dangerous product on the market it would be critically important to share exactly what products, brands, etc are affected in what regions.

Exactly this. Someone has just died, and spokespeople from official organizations whose very job is protecting public health seem to be playing some sort of a secrecy game. Pardon me if this sounds conspiratorial, but I have a feeling the way this is being handled has some financial motivation behind it. If not, then why not just tell the whole truth of what is known?

EDIT: on the bright side, several reporters seem to be onto their game, but officials are doing a fantastic coordinated job of playing dumb farmer. I imagine the strategy is to let this stretch out for as long as possible then let the media sensation wither and release the facts when no one's paying attention anymore.

https://www.reddit.com/r/electronic_cigarette/comments/culh6...

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#155

Post by mistermann »

james_s_tayler wrote: post #29
stjohnswarts wrote: post #3

It's waaaaaaaayyyyy early to blame this on "vape lung". Always be skeptical of people who have an agenda to eliminate something.

Radium. Cigarettes. Asbestos. We've seen it plenty of times when a product comes out and people with an agenda to make money off it say "buy this, it works" and then decades later it is discovered to have been toxic or harmful in some way. Especially given the nature of this product, skepticism should be the default position.

Considering the lack of available facts in these articles, my suspicion is that it's not the ecig vendors who have an agenda in this case.

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#156

Post by roywiggins »

leetcrew wrote: post #152
roywiggins wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last summer, with public concern about teenage vaping growing, Juul Labs paid a charter school organization in Baltimore $134,000 to set up a five-week summer camp to teach children healthy lifestyles. > The curriculum was created by Juul — maker of the very vaping devices that were causing the most alarm among parents, health experts and public officials. > In April 2017, a Juul representative visited the Dwight S…

>> In April 2017, a Juul representative visited the Dwight School in New York City to meet with students — with no teachers present — and told them the company’s e-cigarettes were “totally safe.” this one is pretty damning, but it's only one occurrence. I doubt NYT would have held back if they had any more such anecdotes to offer. as for the rest of the article, the education programs seem a bit sketchy, but they cou…

They're 30% owned by Philip Morris. I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing.

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#157

Post by eurasiantiger »

dmix wrote: post #139
eurasiantiger wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pure nicotine is not deadly, though. Plenty of studies have shown that.

It's very addictive though which was my main concern. Low nicotine counts == far easier time quitting

That’s just it, pure nicotine is not very addictive. See https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine#addictiveness

Re: A person has died from a vaping-related condition

#159

Post by dmix »

eurasiantiger wrote: post #157
dmix wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very addictive though which was my main concern. Low nicotine counts == far easier time quitting

That’s just it, pure nicotine is not very addictive. See https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine#addictiveness

Interesting read, I wasn't aware of that! I love that website.
Post reply on HN