Why is it that every time I attempt to find a crazy story to debunk for the purpose of this here blog, most (if not all) of the links to what I think will be sources end up linking back to previous articles? The click-funnel keeping you on that particular media outlet's page makes finding the truth a bit difficult, but we all know that's what they want.
News stations have been covering a lung epidemic happening in a few of the northern states like Minnesota and Wisconsin.
- NBC is claiming that patients have come in with severe breathing difficulties and further treatment just makes the symptoms worst like fluid build up in the lungs.
- A CBS article says that symptoms in Minnesota include fever, coughing, vomiting, and diarrhea. I don't know how these (other than coughing) could be linking to vaping, and funnily enough neither do the doctors.
These headlines are suggesting that vaping was linked to lung-damage occurring after hitting an e-cigarette, but every article after being thoroughly read admits that none of these doctors are saying there is any concrete link between their patients health and there hobby of choice.
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There is another potential culprit, however. Some patients have admitted to using THC cartridges prior to their hospital stay. One case claims the cartridge was purchased on the street or by a middle man rather than a dispensary in a state where it is legal.
For those who are unaware, THC is a chemical component of marijuana. It's the bit that gives the high stoner's are so well-known for. To this day, there have been no reports of any health-related issues resulting in THC use. I mean accidents can happen when you are intoxicated, but that would be why it is so frowned upon to drink and drive. The other component commonly found in marijuana is CBD. This would be the medicinal chemical responsible for numbing pain, clearing anxiety, preventing seizures, and the list keeps growing the more studies that are done.
So, as with any other "drug" you may find on the streets, there is always the potential that it has been tampered with. As these articles point out, if some other chemical was added to these cartridges for any reason, that could be the reason people are being hospitalized.
Surprisingly, CBS included a quote from the American Vaping Association stating that there is no way vaping nicotine could cause this kind of damage when around ten million adults vape daily without incident.
If it isn't the nicotine, could it be that drug dealers in these states are adding some other toxin to their THC cartridges? With the same logic the AVA has given, if Colorado has gone this whole time without health issues from marijuana (but rather health improvement) it cannot sensibly be the THC causing these cases.
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At least the doctors don't seem as quick to judge vaping as the media, because it would be horrific if they didn't continue to study and find the real danger.
Besides the focus on vaping being a supposed link and a lack of focus on the fact that it's not just teens suffering from these lung afflictions, there is also talk of studies claiming to find toxins in e-liquid. You would think that if an article was going to reference a study they would at least provide a link to the actual study and not back to a previous article written under the same media outlet. Worst though, is the links that take you to the study and it turns out to be a study on something completely different.
A different CBS article (on the same topic) claims that Pediatrics, an online medical journal for the American Academy of Pediatrics, published a study that found Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) or carcinogens in vapes. The article talking about this study was written in March of 2018. If a study anywhere had found that vape liquid contained potentially toxic chemicals, vaping would have never been introduced in UK hospitals as a way to ween patients off of tobacco.
In fact, the link CBS included in an article published today (as well as the 2018 article) led me to a study on whether or not vaping caused more teens to start smoking actual cigarettes. No where could I find anything about detecting acrylamide (among others) in the urine and saliva of around 84 teens averaging 16 years old as CBS claimed.
Spoiler Alert: I only found these outlandish statements in the 2018 article because today's article led me to it with claims of toxins in vapes being a cause to the lung damage people have been experiencing the past few months.
Since the study couldn't been found, I looked up what acrylamide meant because using big words the average person wouldn't understand helps fuel the hate fire.
Acrylamide is a naturally occurring substance that appears in everyday cooking when starches are exposed to higher temperatures. The concerns for it being a potentially cancer-causing agent are minimal. The only studies done were on animals and even the FDA says the average intake is too small to worry about.
So not only did CBS draw conclusions from apparently thin air since they didn't link to the study they mentioned, but they didn't even use scary sounding words that actually had scary backgrounds. It's like these journalists think no one will ever fact check them. Seeing as the average adult believes most claims on the internet without getting evidence, media outlets are just going to keep stirring the pot and making their money.
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Good news for me though, because this segment is based around taking media claims and finding the truth. Come back next week for another group of truths hidden in clever lies by your favorite news sites. Don't forget to pass the knowledge on. The more people opening their mind and questing for facts, the less the media can continue to redirect their audience focus to benefit their fear mongering.
In the coming weeks, I will be creating a Pinterest for The Cloud Mermaid that you can follow for snippets of fun vape related images. Until then, give the Facebook page a like and share with you friends. The Cloud Mermaid FB Page
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