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Cartridges containing THC and marked "Dank Vapes", as well as other illicit markings, are related to the recent severe lung disease in people who use vaping devices and electronic cigarettes to inhale THC or nicotine, or both to health. officials said Friday.
But they also said that Dank Vapes appeared to be a label that THC vendors can slap on any product, and is not a specific formulation or a single product. THC is the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.
"Dank Vapes appears to be the most prominent in a category of largely counterfeit brands, with common packaging easily accessible online and used by distributors to market cartridges containing THC without obvious centralized production and distribution," says a report released Friday. by health officials from Illinois and Wisconsin and federal centers for disease control and prevention.
The new information comes from research interviews with 86 people in Illinois and Wisconsin who became ill after being vaped. Approximately 87% of these patients had used vaporized THC cartridges purchased from "informal sources" in the three months prior to their illness and 57 had used Dank Vapes. Other THC brands include Moon Rocks, Off White and TKO.
But officials said they were unaware if the diseases caused by vaping or deaths in other parts of the country were also related to these marks.
In Illinois and Wisconsin, among the patients who reported having sprayed nicotine, Juul was by far the dominant brand.
C.D.C. held a briefing on Friday to discuss some of the findings of the medical investigations into the steam diseases that reported in 46 states, involving 805 cases and 13 deaths. Oregon reported a second death Thursday; Public health officials said the person was hospitalized for respiratory symptoms after spraying cannabis.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, Senior Deputy Director of the CDC, described lung diseases as "serious and life-threatening". She described the market as dynamic vaping products and said there was a wide range of products, ingredients, packaging and supply chains. , and consumers have no way of knowing exactly what they contain in the liquids they vapotent.
In the United States, many patients have reported using THC products, the agency said. Some patients said they only took nicotine, but researchers in Wisconsin found that some of the patients who said this had actually used THC.
91% of the country's 771 patients had been hospitalized; 69% were men and just over 60% were between 18 and 34 years old. Among the deaths, the C.D.C. nearly 60% were men and the median age was 50 years old.
Both the C.D.C. and the Food and Drug Administration have investigated outbreaks of diseases caused by vaping, with the goal of not only identifying the products used, but also some of the inhalants.
The F.D.A. Commissioner Ned Sharpless told a conference panel on Wednesday that the agency had tested the vaping liquid provided by people who became ill.
"We received about 300 samples," he said. "We've tested about 150. I would say the answer is that about 70 percent are THC products. The others are nicotine products or something else. A significant fraction of THC products, as perhaps half of them, are contaminated with vitamin E acetate. "
Vitamin E acetate is a skin oil and has "no activity" in a product that people inhale, said Dr. Sharpless, adding that the product is added to dilute or "cut" the THC before 39, be sold.
But other ingredients or contaminants can also contribute to diseases, health experts said.
The patients became weak and out of breath. Many need supplemental oxygen and treatment in intensive care units. In some patients, the damage to the lungs was so severe that they were placed under ventilation. In a few cases, the lung function was so bad that the ventilators were not enough and the patients also had to be connected to devices that pump oxygen directly into the blood.
Most patients have recovered enough to return home after weeks or weeks spent in the hospital, but doctors say it's too early to say they will suffer permanent lung injury.
Given the unanswered questions about the exact cause of the disease, many health experts say people simply should not let go. Those who continue to do so should avoid THC and not buy vaping liquids on the street, or add ingredients to commercial products, the C.D.C. I said. He pointed out that adults who do not smoke should not start using electronic cigarettes and that young people and pregnant women should never use them.
The series of illnesses this summer has led several states and legislators to call for more restrictions on e-cigarettes and to call on law enforcement officials to crack down on illegal e-cigarette shops and the illegal sale of vaping products. Michigan, Rhode Island and New York have imposed bans on flavored electronic cigarettes, while Massachusetts imposed a four-month ban on all vaping products. Washington State is also considering banning flavored electronic cigarettes.
Katie Thomas contributed to the reports.
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