CHAPEL HILL, N.C. –Vaping has become very common in the U.S. with about 1 in 20 Americans using e-cigarette products. It was created as an alternative to smoking but now scientists are discovering that vaping can be linked to serious lung conditions.
One particular illness that UNC researchers are pin-pointing is E-cigarette or Vaping Product Use-associated Lung Injury or EVALI. The illness primary affects the younger population. It causes respiratory symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Doctors say these symptom start to develop days or weeks after using a new product.
Meghan Rebuli, a UNC Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, attributes the illness to the “new addition of this vitamin E acetate to a lot of the products that were on the market that induced Evali in a lot of the patients.”
While cases have decline since its peak in 2019, the E-cigarette industry remains under-regulated.