A new report written by the Competitive Enterprise Institute puts the US Federal Government, including the FDA and CDC, under fire for misinforming the public during the 2019 spate of THC related illness and deaths.
Misinformation during the investigation
The report focuses primarily around the June-September 2019 outbreak of hospitalisations for lung disease, which were continuously reported as being ‘vaping related’ by officials, and subsequently by media outlets.
From the outset, most patients were openly self-reporting that they had been using THC e-liquids, with some even stating that they had never before used standard nicotine containing e-liquids. It has been found that many of the states that had experienced hospitalisations were reporting THC as being a common factor amongst patients, with Utah alone reporting that 94% of their patients had disclosed their use of THC cartridges.
THC is the psychoactive compound found in marijuana, and is illegal in the UK and most US states. Because of this, most of the cartridges used reportedly came from the black market, as these illicit products are not available to purchase from reputable retail stores.
This information should have quickly been reported as a way to deter others from using these THC e-liquids which were primarily purchased from street dealers, and many suggest that it would have helped limit the number of cases that occurred. The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) were the agency responsible for the communication and investigation of the cases, and were given these findings, but rather than putting out a warning against using these products while the investigation was ongoing, they continued to refer to the incidents as ‘vaping related’.
While it was obvious to many involved that THC e-liquids, or an additive associated with them, was the responsible party for the illness, and that e-cigarettes being used for their intended purpose, with nicotine containing e-liquids were not thought to be involved, the public were warned to avoid vaping in general.
Andrej Kuttruff, owner of Evapo, commented on the report;
"This is a helpful report on how the CDC completely mishandled this 'vaping' crisis in the US. A crisis which should have always been a THC cartridges crisis."
Commenting on this misinformation, Dr Michael Siegel, a public health professor at Boston University, and former CDC employee, wrote;
"This is akin to attributing a death related to salmonella from lettuce to ‘the consumption of artichokes or other vegetables.’ Something no one would do unless they were intentionally trying to deceive the public into thinking that artichokes were responsible for the death."
Dissuading the public
Unfortunately, these events have had a severe impact on the public view of e-cigarettes in the US. A recent poll found that 58% of participants still believed that the lung illness was caused by ‘e-cigs such as JUUL’, with only 34% of participants knowing that it was actually caused by ‘marijuana or THC e-cigs’ Furthermore, US surveys have found that 87.5% of adult smokers incorrectly believe e-cigarettes to be as harmful as smoking.
Many people are now saying that the damage may have been done in the US, with public opinion on e-cigarettes being so affected and sales of combustible cigarettes, which had been consistently falling, having now levelled out, suggesting that less people are now choosing to quit. It has even been heard that the news throughout the outbreak caused some vapers to discontinue vaping and return to smoking cigarettes, putting them back at risk of smoking related illnesses that kill half a million Americans every year.
https://cei.org/content/federal-government-misled-public-e-cigarette-health-risk-cei-report
