Vaping in Question

The vaping industry will face major challenges, an expert has predicted.

“The epidemic of vaping among youth, and then this outbreak of serious respiratory disease is taking place,” Anthony Alberg, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Bio Statistics at the University of South Carolina, told WIS-TV.

Alberg says e-cigarettes helped some users curb nicotine addiction, but flavored e-cigarettes are luring teenagers to smoking.

“There’s the potential benefit for helping addicted smokers to quit smoking,” he said. “But there’s no doubt that for youth it’s an unwise idea to ever start.

“We don’t even know the full extent of the health risks, of what the long-term health effects are.”

Alberg says that 7 known deaths and hundreds of reported respiratory illnesses linked to vaping could be caused by faulty products.

“Evidence would suggest that it’s tainted products because we haven’t seen this lung disease before, and it’s so far contained to the United States,” he said. “We’re not seeing it internationally.”

Alberg says, the common denominator in this recent outbreak of illness could be due to a bad product, unsafe production, or other factors, but for now, he advises playing it safe and not vaping.