Following the vaping-related deaths of six people in the US, President Donald Trump is moving to ban flavoured e-cigarettes.
Following a meeting at the White House on Wednesday (September 11), Trump told reporters that vaping was ‘a problem’.
‘Not only is it a problem overall, but really specifically with respect for children,’ Trump added.
After the mysterious vaping-related illness took the lives of six people across the country, the president sat down with advisers including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Norman Sharpless.
As reported by Bloomberg, Trump said:
We may very well have to do something very, very strong about it.
Azar added that the FDA would soon issue regulatory guidance to remove flavoured vaping products from the market. Citing statistics which show five million children are using e-cigarette products, the secretary called vaping an ‘alarming’ trend.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared underage vaping ‘an epidemic’, laying the groundwork for future regulatory action.
The most recent death came from Kanvas, when a man over the age of 50 died after his ‘symptoms progressed rapidly’ – although state officials added he had a history of underlying health issues.
This came after an LA County man died from a vaping-related illness on Saturday (September 7) – he reportedly suffered from other chronic health conditions at the time of his death.
Other deaths related to e-cigarettes have been reported in the states of Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois and Oregon, while another gentleman was placed into a medically induced coma in Utah.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently probing 450 cases of severe pulmonary disease across 33 states to decipher the link to vaping. Cases of respiratory illness have carried severe symptoms, including chest pain, shortness of breath and vomiting.
A total of 12 people in LA County have now been hospitalised due to e-cigarette-related injuries, with almost all these individuals having vaped using THC. One third were reported to be older adults.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, LA County public health director Barbara Ferrer has issued the following warning:
Today we’re issuing a warning to all residents about the use of these devices as potentially harmful to proper lung function, Stop vaping now.
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After the number of cases doubled in the space of just one week, officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have also urged people to stop vaping.
As reported by People, CDC incident manager, Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman, said:
While this investigation is ongoing, people should consider not using e-cigarette products.
People who do use e-cigarette products should monitor themselves for symptoms, for example, cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea and vomiting — and promptly seek medical attention for any health concerns.
As reported by The Guardian, an estimated nine million adults and 3.6 million teenagers in the US use e-cigarettes. This includes 20 per cent of high school students
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.