As the cannabis industry turns a corner into legality, a wellspring of evidence shows that vaping — initially considered a healthy method for consuming cannabis — might present more danger to consumers than once thought. In 2019, contaminated vaporizer pens from black-market producers sickened thousands of users and killed several dozen, and research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that the tobacco vaporizers on the market today are just as damaging as cigarettes. Consumers are left questioning whether they should vape at all. Now, cannabis industry experts predict a second vaporizer crisis with injuries that will manifest differently than those of the first.
In the first vaporizer crisis, which began in August, doctors reported thousands of cases of what the Center for Disease Control came to call “e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury” (EVALI). A thickening agent in the vaporizer oils — vitamin E acetate — ...
