{"id":12173,"date":"2019-10-15T21:32:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T21:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=12173"},"modified":"2019-10-15T21:32:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T21:32:08","slug":"vaping-in-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/15\/vaping-in-the-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaping In The Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

E-cigarette illness count keeps climbing! Concern, not so much?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Cody Orchard teaches a smoking cessation class. Photo credit: South Central Public Health District<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Resort towns and rural states are not immune to epidemic. Disease doesn\u2019t take vacations. But so far, only six cases of vaping-related illness, now called EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping Associated Lung Injury), have been diagnosed in the Gem State. And according to staff at Smoking Dog Cigar Co. in Hailey, business there is doing just fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t affected us at all,\u201d said Sal Wendland of Smoking Dog Cigar Co., especially after recent published articles indicated that black market cartridges that include THC were to blame for the uptick in serious lung issues and illnesses.<\/p>\n

Wendland said many of the store\u2019s customers vape to wean off of cigarettes, since it can give them a nicotine high without taking in the tar and other carcinogens found in traditional smoking of tobacco. And it\u2019s this \u201cbenefit\u201d of vaping that concerns health officials a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about the lack of concern,\u201d said Cody Orchard, a health education specialist for South Central Public Health District. \u201cThose six cases may not sound like a lot across an entire state, but that\u2019s just within the last month or so. It is fair to say that we\u2019re in the Wild West phase of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orchard, who teaches smoking cessation classes at Wood River High School and Wood River Middle School, among other Valley locations, points out that illnesses from traditional smoking emerged for smokers when they hit their 40s and 50s. Meanwhile, a large percentage of the illnesses today are being found in 15- to 35-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s supposed to be our young and healthy portion of the population. We don\u2019t need that problem,\u201d said Orchard. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is pretty scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Scary Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

As of Oct. 8, 1,299 confirmed and probable lung injury cases associated with use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products were reported by 49 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with 26 deaths being confirmed across 21 states, but not Idaho. The median age of patients who have died is 49 years, ranging from 17 to 75 years old.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Salt-based \u201ce-liquids\u201d or \u201cvape juices\u201d come in myriad flavors, such as this \u201cblueberry lemon\u201d flavor by Juice Head. Photo credit: Sun Staff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If the numbers don\u2019t alarm you, Orchard\u2019s detailed explanations of why vaping is so popular may. First, there\u2019s the weaning-off concept Wendland mentions. Yes, reducing tar and carcinogen is a positive. And if vaping can help anyone begin the cessation (quitting) process, that\u2019s good news.<\/p>\n

The problem, Orchard says, is what\u2019s being discovered about today\u2019s products\u2014black market or otherwise. For instance, the liquid (sometimes called \u201cvape juice\u201d) that gets inhaled can contain vegetable glycerine. Sounds healthy, but when burned, it turns into acrolein\u2014a toxic chemical found in Roundup.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is using different products, from different places and different stores, so it\u2019s really hard to know where the cause and the correlation is,\u201d Orchard said.<\/p>\n

And on this point, Wendland seems to agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope has done a much better job researching this,\u201d she said. \u201cThe information I go by is from overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wendland noted that in Great Britain there have been enough government-approved studies that terms like \u201csafer alternative to smoking\u201d can be used. In the United States, that\u2019s not allowed. Nicotine-based vaping sold in the states must contain labels that clearly state nicotine is addictive.<\/p>\n

Some Solutions<\/b><\/p>\n

For more information on EVALI and courses in the Valley, please visit phd5.idaho.gov\/vaping or call the health district at (208) 737-5968.<\/p>\n

The district holds courses from Twin Falls to the Wood River Valley, in schools and at St. Luke\u2019s. The non-school courses are geared toward adults, but if parents call the district and ask for their teenage child to be in the class, teens are allowed.<\/p>\n

When asked if there were one piece of information he wished everyone knew about the topic, Orchard said it\u2019d be this: \u201cPeople need to realize that the vaping product they smoked over a decade ago is probably not what they\u2019re smoking today. This product has adapted in every way. There\u2019s no smell. It looks like their thumb drive. It matches their phone. That\u2019s part of what draws teens to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Box Out]:<\/p>\n

Among 573 patients who used e-cigarette, or vaping, products in the 90 days prior to symptom onset:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • 76 percent reported using THC-containing products, with or without nicotine-containing products<\/li>\n
  • 58 percent reported using nicotine-containing products, with or without THC-containing products<\/li>\n
  • 32 percent reported exclusive use of THC-containing products<\/li>\n
  • 13 percent reported exclusive use of nicotine-containing products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    E-cigarette illness count keeps climbing! Concern, not so much? By Eric Valentine Resort towns and rural states are not immune to epidemic. Disease doesn\u2019t take vacations. But so far, only six cases of vaping-related illness, now called EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping Associated Lung Injury), have been diagnosed in the Gem State. And according to staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-news","8":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}