The French health authorities will set up a system to monitor whether the use of electronic cigarettes is accompanied or not by an epidemic of severe pulmonary diseases, as seems to be the case in the United States.
Public Health France, in conjunction with the Directorate General for Health (DGS, Ministry), "a device for reporting cases of severe pneumopathies occurring in users of electronic devices vaping (electronic cigarette, vaporizers) or practicing 'dabbing '", explained the public body to AFP, confirming information from the Parisian-Today in France . Dabbing is a practice that is developing among cannabis users: it involves inhaling through a water pipe steam from a concentrated form of this drug, heated with a small blowtorch.
A device triggered after an alert in the United States
This surveillance device "follows the warning on the occurrence last August severe pulmonary diseases in users of electronic cigarettes launched by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the US health control centers. "To date, neither the CDC nor the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have advanced any definite explanation as to the origin of these severe pneumonitis," says Public Health France. In the United States, more than 380 vapers have recently had serious lung problems and seven have died.
The French device, designed with the support of the French-speaking Society of Pneumology, the French Language Resuscitation Society and the French Society of Emergency Medicine, "is based on reports of serious pulmonary diseases taken in France. charge in hospitals ".
Detect the emergence of a "possible epidemic"
"This specific watch is not intended to monitor the potential risks associated with vaping but to detect the emergence of a possible epidemic of severe pneumopathies in connection with the use of electronic vaping devices, similar to that observed in the United States. States, "says Public Health France. The device will also make it possible "to describe the epidemiological, clinical and toxicological characteristics of the cases, if possible of the composition of the consumed products, in order to identify the cause (s) of these cases of severe pneumopathies".
In the United States, most patients had purchased THC fluids, the psychoactive substance of cannabis, but it remains unclear which ingredient among the many additives may have damaged the lungs. Vitamin E oil has been cited as a possible cause by New York State, but federal health authorities have not confirmed that this molecule was the culprit.