Saturday, September 7, 2019

People are dying because they're stupid. Not because they're vaping flavored nic juice


Vaping is a smart, cost-effective and relatively safe way to quit smoking tobacco. But it's not idiot proof.

Vaping is not new. Vapers in the U.K and the U.S. have been reducing tobacco harm through the use of electronic cigarettes since 2007. By early 2009 the technology had gone global. 

It's a technology that has been helping tobacco smokers quit polluting their bodies and shortening their lives. Vaping is a zero pharmaceutical and combustion-free tobacco harm reduction technology.  

The fact that a small number of people are now doing stupid stuff with it should not surprise you and it shouldn't stop smokers from considering it.

I started using e-cigs in June 2013. I quit burning tobacco completely in August 2017. No expensive psychosomatic drugs necessary. No sticky, itchy patches. No nasty tasting gum that fouls dental work. Just deliciously flavored and very satisfying clouds of vapor.

For about the cost of a carton of premium cigarettes, I can buy a very powerful electronic device and enough juice to last me the same week that the smokes did. At the end of the week, all I need to replace is the juice and maybe the small heating element. This coil is the small part that uses heat (not burning) to convert the water soluble liquid into a gaseous cloud. The cloud contains only USP grade nicotine, USP grade glycerin, USP grade glycol and FDA approved flavoring. That's it.

Vaping is not new, but idiots have been around since forever. Given enough time, idiots always find a way to take something useful to the rest of us and turn it into something that becomes a threat to themselves and others around them. 

These people aren't getting sick or dying because they're vaping. This is happening to them because they're stupid.

In those studies, officials in Illinois and Wisconsin detailed 53 cases they've investigated, 28 in Wisconsin and 25 in Illinois. They described the vaping history of 41 patients where complete information was available. 
About 80% of those patients had used products containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and 61% used nicotine products. Some 7% used cannabidiol, or CBD, products. 
Most of the patients were male, with an average age of 19, and all were previously healthy. They were sick for several days prior to being hospitalized, with respiratory symptoms being most common, followed by fever, fatigue, weight loss and gastrointestinal symptoms. 
In some of these cases, officials said, patients either used only THC products or only nicotine. Patients reported using 14 different brands of THC products and 13 brands of nicotine products in a wide range of flavors. It's possible patients did not accurately report which kinds of products they had vaped.
So... there are less than 100 cases of severe reactions to vaping, 80% of which were vaping the active ingredient in marijuana and another 7% using CBD. To top it all off, it's possible that the people who got sick had no idea what they were inhaling.

There are tens of millions of vapers in the U.S. There are hundreds of millions globally. Yet a tiny portion of people have tried to use this life-saving technology to do something stupid.

Charles Darwin had a theory about such organisms, didn't he?

Please feel free to share this royalty free meme wherever you want. Scroll below it to read a few other ways people are being stupid with e-cigs.


Super low resistance atomizers represent a threat to the user and the people around him. People who insist on build resistances below 0.25Ω are asking for trouble. Today's high tech batteries are capable of delivering a fearsome amount of electrical current. That current can result in a fire that destroys the device and often results in the battery going into a rapid thermal event and possible explosion. Ultra low resistance requires high electrical current that may exceed the battery's ability to deliver it. When that happens, BOOM.

Mistreatment or misuse of Lithium chemistry batteries is a cause for concern. The batteries are found in cell phones, tablets, laptop computers, power tools, children's toys and e-cigs. They're not dangerous if they're used properly. They create a safety hazard if they're removed from the device they're meant to be used in and handled carelessly or ignorantly.

Almost all of the human injuries and property damage caused by the dreaded "exploding vape pen" were caused by idiots failing to use or charge the batteries in a safe manner. I would be willing to bet that the frequency of these "explosions" is statistically no greater than the frequency of similar events with other devices such as cell phones and power tools.

Electronic devices with lithium type batteries that simply explode or catch fire all by themselves are exceedingly rare. There are billions of such devices in use today and chances are near 100% that you're reading this text on a device powered by a Lithium battery.

If 1/100th of 1% of those devices are just plain faulty, that makes 100 out of every million of them a handheld time bomb. Don't you know it, 100 exploding e-cigs will make the evening news because the TV station is running ads for Chantix.

0 comments :

Post a Comment

You must have a Google Account to post a comment.

WARNING: Posting on this blog is a privilege. You have no First Amendment rights here. I am the sole, supreme and benevolent dictator. This blog commenting system also has a patented Dumbass Detector. Don't set it off.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.