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CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

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Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#51

The thing causing this outbreak seems to have been someone using a vitamin e oil to increase the potency of their thx carts up to 95% or so. [0] I also believe they were out of Chicago. Or at least they shipped a lot of carts to Chicago/Illinois and then they spread out from there. But this is just from the cases I've read. Also from today Doctors have identified previously unrecognized characteristic of the vaping-r…

From a thread on Reddit[0], written by a cannibis biologist:

“The reason [vitamin e is] being found in black market carts is because black market manufacturers are incentivized to dilute out their product as much as possible to maximize profit. They don't have to provide you with potency numbers, they just need the cartridge to look plausibly full of distillate.

This means they use any of the aforementioned dilution methods, or even other less safe methods and wind up with a thing and runny product that is obviously not high purity distillate.

So what do they do? They thicken it back up to be more believable. This is where Vitamin E acetate comes in. It can reliably dissolve a large range of organic compounds but is also similarly viscous to Maple syrup. This means it can be used to dilute distillate or thicken up heavily cut distillate, but leave it looking comparable to an actual high quality distillate. Thus they can turn a 1g cart into 5 1g carts, for the low low price of the health of the end user.”

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/FLMedicalTrees/comments/d0wn7v/clea...

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#53

I had a startup in Vaping(nicotine) and am still fairly in touch with the industry. There has been no major innovation in nicotine eliquid that would cause a sudden cluster of issues. It's stayed pretty constant since 2013 with the exception of Salt Nicotine, which Pax labs has a gras study published for. The majority of cases seems to be THC carts where it can be confirmed. One case was confirmed from a dispensary i…

As someone who was in the industry, what do you think about the argument of vaping being a safer alternative? I see pretty mixed things in the health community but it's tough because some of the argument seems to be that the tobacco industry has acted nefariously in the past so we can't trust any innovation in the space.

Is there any known experience similar to vaping/smoking of today that has really minimal health consequences but maybe isn't as addictive?

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#54
post #46
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve stated this before: cigarettes will kill me with a 100% probability (I was smoking over a pack a day). Maybe vaping will not kill me. Maybe I’ll grow a third arm in 20 years. I don’t know. But I have to play the odds; “100% certainty” vs “maybe not”, I know which one I’m going for. Also, I’ve gone from 9mg of nicotine to 1mg in 2 years, because vaping allows me to monitor and measure exactly how much nicotine I…

I appreciate your optimism about the unknown, but there is the frightening possibility that maybe e-cigerattes will kill you more efficiently than your regular smokes. If you’re using it as a way to stop completely, then that’s awesome, but all Danish research on the subject has led to vaping being on our “not-recommended” list for ways of helping people quit.

Except for the fact that other ways don’t work. It’s not possible to slowly reduce your nicotine intake with cigarettes. The only alternative is: stop all your smoking habits, and maybe one of these nicotine substitutes will help.

But that only adresses one part of the issue: the nicotine addiction. Smoking is a lot more complex than just the nicotine addiction. I know a lot of smokers who managed to take a break from cigarettes for a few months, but I’ve never met a vaper who went back to cigarettes.

I’m slowly rewiring my brain to not need cigarettes or vaping. I smoked for 15 years, and started during my formative years, so I know this will be a long process. Just telling me to chew gum or apply patches is a cop out for the government to clear its conscience about not really helping its population kick the smoking habit. There’s a reason the tobacco industry doesn’t care about patches and gum: it doesn’t work for the majority of smokers.

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#56
post #24

Yes ok, it’s a bad batch of juice (probably), it won’t effect most vapers (probably), better regulation will solve the problem (maybe). But I have got to ask... was all the vaping done thus far and into the future worth even one person dying needlessly? It’s cigarettes all over again. Who benefits except the people selling it? Yes freedom, yes whatabout other pointless harmful things in the world, but vaping has alre…

> ...was all the vaping done thus far and into the future worth even one person dying needlessly? This is a reduction to absurdity that I can't quite grasp: People die of all sorts of maladies every year and a single person dying from vaping is your apex priority because, " it could've been prevented by banning vaping "? This almost seems like a variation of the " won't someone think of the children " argument. To wh…

I am not on anyone's side here, but didn't you just answer a logical fallacy with another? Namely whataboutism?

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because you can opt out of the former. "No, I won't buy from Starbucks because of their cups. No, I won't eat that because it has GMOs." It's a lot harder to make that commitment when it's the air you breathe - you either have to wear a mask all the time or move away and live in the wilderness.

Oooor you can choose not to vaporize things to inhale? This isn't in normal air, it's specifically from vaping

No you can’t if someone is vaping near you. In fact it’s worse, since vapids make a point of blowing as much “smoke” as they can to make sure everyone sees them.

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what the article says at all. It says that they don't know enough yet.

It's been discussed here before, the byproduct was some cheapass copy from China ( because the original one was more expensive)

When most high-tech luxury products are produced in China, it's disingenuous to use China as an example of low quality manufacturing.

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#59
post #24

Yes ok, it’s a bad batch of juice (probably), it won’t effect most vapers (probably), better regulation will solve the problem (maybe). But I have got to ask... was all the vaping done thus far and into the future worth even one person dying needlessly? It’s cigarettes all over again. Who benefits except the people selling it? Yes freedom, yes whatabout other pointless harmful things in the world, but vaping has alre…

Something like 400,000 people a year die in the US due to smoking. Vaping is mostly a substitute for smoking. But even if millions of non-smokers start vaping, it's a net positive.

Re: CDC says stop vaping as mystery lung condition spreads

#60
post #5

It amazes me people freak out about GMOs and the material Starbucks cups are made out of yet will breathe vaporized chemicals of who knows what sorts directly into their lungs. Mind boggling.

You're acting like "people" is one cohesive group. I'd largely suspect there's minimal overlap between the GMO group and potent THC vapers.

While what you're saying is probably true, many people forget that humans are walking contradictions.
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