At last count nearly 2,290 vapers have sustained injuries this year – and 47 people have died as of Nov. 20 , according to the CDC. An agency report states that the lungs of injured patients, which look as though they’ve been exposed to chemicals in an industrial accident, are ridden with vitamin E acetate, a gummy chemical syrup often added to vaping liquids. At Duke University Medical Center, doctors have already identified about half a dozen such cases among young adults.
Rose, who has received research funding from companies that make vaping-devices, doesn't minimize the tragedy of vaping-related injuries and deaths. He just doesn't believe vaping technology per se is the culprit. The problem, rather, lies with unregulated players who peddle dangerous substances, especially those containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. He has received more than two dozen grants from the National Institutes of Health to study cigarette addiction and treatment. That research has helped pave the way for the nicotine patch and other cigarette alternatives. Rose has also served as an adviser to Marlboro maker Altria Group, Inc., as well as Philip Morris International Inc. and e-cigarette maker Juul Labs.
Duke’s Center for Smoking Cessation was initially funded by the tobacco industry, which was required to pay for smoking research by the courts. Rose, who first began prototyping e-cigarettes in the 1980s, sold early vape technology to Philip Morris in 2011. Duke had the option to claim the intellectual property at the time but passed up the chance out of fear that the device would expose non-smoking youngsters to an attractive new form of nicotine delivery, said Ross McKinney, who served at the time as the director of Duke’s Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine.
“We didn't want Duke to be responsible for a generation of young nicotine addicts,” said McKinney.
Vaping eventually came to campus anyway. Though both vaping and smoking have long been banned indoors, many students are still puffing away on both traditional and e-cigarettes in the library, in dorms and while walking to class. (By comparison, New York City banned smoking in restaurants in 2003. Michael R. Bloomberg, mayor of New York at the time and founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, has campaigned and given money in support of a nationwide ban on flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco.)
Smoking Ban
In July, Duke will finally ban tobacco smoking campus wide. But vaping may continue. While campus leaders debate adding e-cigarettes to the policy, the university currently intends to offer educational programs to drive home the health dangers of vaping. That doesn’t look so proactive compared with higher education at large. At least 2,074 universities and colleges across the U.S. now prohibit all vaping on campus, according to an October report from the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
Still, the tide may be turning of its own accord. Though “Juuling” remains prevalent on the Duke campus, undergraduates say the prevalence of vaping has begun to wane as they see more of their classmates end up in the hospital. “It doesn't have the cultural presence that it did a year ago,” said Mehul Kumar, 19. But if vaping is somehow seen as less cool, it’s not likely to go away anytime soon.
“So what if the ban were implemented?” said Kumar. “People won't use it in the library. But they'll use it in their dorms. You can't enforce these things.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.