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

Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

cei.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 84 posts

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#21

Post by JimboOmega »

ng12 wrote: post #10

I hope this spurs the government into action. NYC is absolutely flooded with perfectly legitimate looking vape cartridges filled with questionable product. They're often sold as being from a "dispensary brand" although they're obviously not. As an example, these were readily available for years despite the fact that the brand never even existed in the first place: https://merryjane.com/culture/are-smart-cart-vapes-le…

Was surprised when I visited NYC to see California stamps on products my friend had. I assumed another friend had brought them from California, but it totally makes sense that it's black marketeers trying to look legit.

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#22

Post by [deleted] »

TylerE wrote: post #15
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #13

The big problem seems to be that vaping has never been proven to be safe or safer than cigarettes. There's always been the assumption that it is. My suspicion is that something like this outbreak will happen again. I'm not a fan of the vaping companies since their goal seems to be to get users addicted to their product but they should go through the process of proving that vaping is safer than cigarettes so they don'…

Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone. We could have 10 of these "outbreaks" a day and still be way ahead.

[deleted]

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#23

Post by allovernow »

TylerE wrote: post #15
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #13

The big problem seems to be that vaping has never been proven to be safe or safer than cigarettes. There's always been the assumption that it is. My suspicion is that something like this outbreak will happen again. I'm not a fan of the vaping companies since their goal seems to be to get users addicted to their product but they should go through the process of proving that vaping is safer than cigarettes so they don'…

Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone. We could have 10 of these "outbreaks" a day and still be way ahead.

>Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone.

I really feel like such statistics, for other topics as well, are unnecessarily sensationalist. Yes, people are dying from smoking related diseases, but they're not dropping dead from smoking. They smoke (and derive pleasure from doing so) for decades and increase their chances of lung disease. The truth doesn't sound quite as urgent, IMO.

But I do agree with your general sentiment.

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#24

Post by harikb »

TylerE wrote: post #15
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #13

The big problem seems to be that vaping has never been proven to be safe or safer than cigarettes. There's always been the assumption that it is. My suspicion is that something like this outbreak will happen again. I'm not a fan of the vaping companies since their goal seems to be to get users addicted to their product but they should go through the process of proving that vaping is safer than cigarettes so they don'…

Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone. We could have 10 of these "outbreaks" a day and still be way ahead.

That 500,000 number includes those who have been smoking for many many years from a wide age range. Also the total number of smokers is also a large number (across years). So it is really not a fair comparison

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#25

Post by MiroF »

KnightHawk3 wrote: post #3

What's the state of all the laws brought in against vapes under the pretence that nicotine vaping is causing the outbreak in lung illnesses.

I think there are two related problems -

one is contamination of black market carts

the other is the rise of teenage nicotine intake

My understanding is many of the federal laws are meant to address the latter, while the local laws like the MA vape ban meant to address the former are now being rolled back.

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#26

Post by allovernow »

resters wrote: post #20

And again, just as was the case with Boeing, the blame lands squarely on the shoulders of regulators who failed to adequately do their jobs. In the case of Boeing, the regulatory approach was a joke, and in the case of vaping, regulators had their heads in the sand about a multi billion dollar black market for years. The death toll resulting from backward recreational drug regulation in the US is mind boggling, not t…

How do you regulate an illegal black market?

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#27

Post by TylerE »

allovernow wrote: post #23
TylerE wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone. We could have 10 of these "outbreaks" a day and still be way ahead.

>Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone. I really feel like such statistics, for other topics as well, are unnecessarily sensationalist. Yes, people are dying from smoking related diseases, but they're not dropping dead from smoking. They smoke (and derive pleasure from doing so) for decades and increase their chances of lung disease. The truth doesn't sound quite as urgent, IMO. But I do agree…

Smokers live, on average, 10 years less than non-smokers. That sounds pretty fucking urgent.

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#28

Post by resters »

allovernow wrote: post #26
resters wrote: post #20

And again, just as was the case with Boeing, the blame lands squarely on the shoulders of regulators who failed to adequately do their jobs. In the case of Boeing, the regulatory approach was a joke, and in the case of vaping, regulators had their heads in the sand about a multi billion dollar black market for years. The death toll resulting from backward recreational drug regulation in the US is mind boggling, not t…

How do you regulate an illegal black market?

Just as many regulatory approaches don't work, outright bans is one that clearly doesn't work. They are rooted in a backward, dualistic view of the world.

In the case of banning recreational drugs, the history of those laws is among the ugliest bits of American history.

The practice of allowing firms to self-regulate crucial aircraft safety practices is also very foolhardy.

When will we start holding the right parties responsible for all these tragedies? We the people need to insist that regulators step up and make us safer, not cater to whatever interest group has achieved regulatory capture.

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#29

Post by dingbats »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #13

The big problem seems to be that vaping has never been proven to be safe or safer than cigarettes. There's always been the assumption that it is. My suspicion is that something like this outbreak will happen again. I'm not a fan of the vaping companies since their goal seems to be to get users addicted to their product but they should go through the process of proving that vaping is safer than cigarettes so they don'…

Burning carbon chains and directly afterwards ingesting it into the lungs has been proven to be quite bad, it does cell and tissue damage and hinders a healthy cell respiration. Is there any reason we should expect worse effects from vaping which, as I understand it, if done correctly doesn't produce harmful carbons?

Re: Vaping-related lung injuries primarily linked to black-market products

#30

Post by tjohns »

TylerE wrote: post #15
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #13

The big problem seems to be that vaping has never been proven to be safe or safer than cigarettes. There's always been the assumption that it is. My suspicion is that something like this outbreak will happen again. I'm not a fan of the vaping companies since their goal seems to be to get users addicted to their product but they should go through the process of proving that vaping is safer than cigarettes so they don'…

Cigarettes kill almost 500,000 people a year in the US alone. We could have 10 of these "outbreaks" a day and still be way ahead.

That assumes there’s no long term cancer risk from vaping, which we simply don’t know yet.
Post reply on HN