Use of tetrahydrocannabinol-or THC-containing products from friends or acquaintances may have played a key role in the e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury epidemic in the U.S., according to results of a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Since August 2019, more than 2,700 patients have been hospitalized with the vaping-associated lung injury. For this study, researchers examined data from 160 hospitalized EVALI patients reported to the California Department of Public Health from Aug. 7 through Nov. 8, 2019.
Of the 160 patients, 86 were interviewed, and a vast majority of them (83 percent) reported vaping THC-containing products. Seventy-five percent of THC-containing products were obtained from informal sources, such as friends, acquaintances or unlicensed retailers, and 84 percent of the products contained vitamin E or vitamin E acetate.
Vitamin E acetate, an additive, was strongly linked to the outbreak in an early February CDC report.
The study also found that 46 percent of the EVALI patients were admitted to an intensive care unit, and four patients died in the hospital.
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