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Inhaling metals when vaping

Jd_

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For better or worse this is apparently the true story behind the new rumors about metals being inhaled when you vape.

(Please don't bitch at me about the association of any lung disease to vaping, because I doubt that as well, I simply cut and pasted)

Doctors have discovered yet another way that vaping — and vaping THC, in particular — can damage the lungs: when the metal coils of electronic cigarettes heat up to turn e-liquids into aerosols, toxic metals can leach into the liquid, leading to a rare condition usually only seen in industrial metal workers.

A case report published Wednesday in the European Respiratory Journal describes a 49-year-old California woman who had symptoms now known to be associated with the more than 2,000 cases of vaping illnesses nationwide: shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing.

But when pathologists took a close look at the woman's lung tissue, it didn't look like a typical case of EVALI, or e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury. Instead, they saw damaged cells that had engulfed other lung cells, creating giant cells — a pattern that's typically found in an illness called hard-metal lung disease.

Giant cells in the patient's damaged lung tissue are seen clearly under the microscope.

European Respiratory Society
"It has a distinctive and unusual appearance that is not observed in other diseases," said case report co-author Dr. Kirk Jones, a professor of pathology at the University of California, San Francisco. "When we diagnose it, we are looking for occupational exposure to metal dust or vapor, usually cobalt, as a cause."

The patient — a dog walker by trade — had no such exposure. What she did have was the ZenPen brand vape pen she'd been using for six months prior to getting sick. ZenPens do not come with pre-filled cartridges, so users must purchase their e-liquid elsewhere.

ZenPen did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.
When the doctors tested the e-liquid left in the device, they found several metals: nickel, aluminum, manganese, lead, cobalt and chromium.

Inhalation of cobalt in particular has been implicated in the kind of lung damage seen in the California case, Jones said. He'd treated a similar case in a mill worker several years before.
Jones and his co-authors hypothesize that the metals found in the e-liquid leached from the heating coil in the vape pen.

Vaping marijuana raises the risk of this leaching, because the devices must be heated to much higher temperatures to aerosolize THC than to aerosolize nicotine.

Previous research has shown that a greater amount of toxic substances are released as the voltage needed to heat vape devices increases.

The authors said their case report illustrates an urgent need for regulation of vaping devices. "The public health implications of this are substantial given the increasing trend towards legalization of cannabis for recreational and medical purposes," they wrote.

The California woman's lung damage is likely permanent, her doctors said, although her lung function may improve.

The case report adds to the growing evidence that vaping can damage the lungs in a variety of ways. The addition of vitamin E acetate to e-liquids has been implicated in many of the EVALI cases, especially cases that involved THC. Doctors did not test the California woman’s device for vitamin E acetate.

Doctors around the country have reported different forms of lung tissue injury in patients who vape THC.

An analysis of lung tissue at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, for example, revealed the kind of burns normally seen when a person is exposed to a spilled drum of toxic chemicals.

And when Cleveland Clinic doctors looked at the lung tissue from vaping patients, they found two different patterns of lung injury. One is called organizing pneumonia, which is when the tiny airways and air sacs become inflamed. Others had damaged alveoli, the tiny air sacs responsible for allowing oxygen into the blood and carbon dioxide out.

EVALI cases have been diagnosed in all 50 states. Alaska reported its first case Tuesday.
 
More American bullshit and lies [emoji45] must be hard living in a country so full of shit that your shafted by not only the government and the media but healthcare people too
 
Gotta luv it

Also, in relation to that story, I'm not sure if it was because of or completely separate there was a johns hopkins study where they found levels of certain metals that approached or sometimes exceeded what are considered the 'safe levels' of these metals in the air breathed in everyday by everyone.

As in there are already these metals in the air due to pollution and the vapor from a vape device sometimes approaches the level of these pollutants that they consider safe.
 
More American bullshit and lies [emoji45] must be hard living in a country so full of shit that your shafted by not only the government and the media but healthcare people too
As long as canada doesn't get brainwashed im cool. 8 hour drive is a bitch but still better than cigs
 
It's a constant drip feed of grasping at straws idea's.
Actually due to our long term use of metals in foundries we've seen some good metal inhalation testing for a long time. We've all been eating out toast made via kanthal and heating our front rooms the same way for a very long time, lol.
that said Weve always promoted careful use of temp control wire like titanium for safety reasons.
 
It's a constant drip feed of grasping at straws idea's.
Actually due to our long term use of metals in foundries we've seen some good metal inhalation testing for a long time. We've all been eating out toast made via kanthal and heating our front rooms the same way for a very long time, lol.
that said Weve always promoted careful use of temp control wire like titanium for safety reasons.
Ive noticed the only metals the dont ever mention are stainless steel and titanium.

Since i'm already having to get used to wearing a mask, i may just start using one year round like they do in china for pollutants and allergens.

Do u have to use stainless steel and titanium in tc mode or just have a mod capable of tc mode?
 
Ive noticed the only metals the dont ever mention are stainless steel and titanium.

Since i'm already having to get used to wearing a mask, i may just start using one year round like they do in china for pollutants and allergens.

Do u have to use stainless steel and titanium in tc mode or just have a mod capable of tc mode?
Titanium is Temp only, cannot be used in power mode. The only caveat is Replay mode on a DNA mod as this is a smart form of TC where you set the power, hit Replay & lock that vape. It uses resistance changes to prevent dry hits. SS can be used in power or temp mode.
 
Is ss mostly because u have to be careful of it low melting point?
 
Is ss mostly because u have to be careful of it low melting point?
To be honest, any wire baring kanthal has some form of oxidation when driven to glow red. Hence why kanthal is really the only wire to dry burn in wattage to clean.
this only really needed to be pointed out when vaping nichrome as the other wires where predominantly used for tc.
now stainless is very common in wattage (and a pain in the arse with mods that auto detect wire as they always auto set to tc for safety) it should be pointed out that you should never dry burn stainless either.
titanium is a great tc wire as it's very stable but proves the most toxic if fired until it glows and oxides are produced.
long and short is be careful with nichrome and stainless when in wattage, kanthal is the safest inhalation wise and everything else should be only used in tc mode for safe, fume free vaping.
 
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