Brussels (AFP)
An 18-year-old man died in Belgium from respiratory failure attributed by the authorities to vaping and a harmful mixture of products in an electronic cigarette, a first in the country.
"The link with the electronic cigarette is established.There is no other explanation for this type of serious pneumonia in this patient," Health Minister Maggie De Block told reporters on Thursday.
The minister was being questioned in plenary sitting in the House after several media revealed the recent death of Raphael, an 18-year-old Brussels resident who had used an e-cigarette containing a cannabis derivative.
It would be according to the first elements of cannabidiol (CBD), a molecule with soothing properties, not stupefying, and legal, but which can be sold on the black market mixed with harmful products.
The mixture with vitamin E acetate (oil), which has already caused deaths in the United States, is suspected.
"The investigation must continue to establish the precise circumstances of Raphael's death," said De Block.
In a July report, the World Health Organization (WHO) ruled that e-cigarettes were "undeniably harmful" and could not be used as a tool to help stop smoking.
US health authorities have classified electronic cigarettes as "dangerous" for young people, while the number of high school students has doubled in the country between 2017 and 2018.
The United States is all the more cautious that a mysterious epidemic of pulmonary diseases linked to vaping has already affected more than 2,000 American vapers and resulted in 39 deaths in this country.
The cause of the diseases has been attributed by the authorities to one of the ingredients of liquid refills with THC (the psychoactive substance of cannabis), mostly sold on the black market, vitamin E oil.
© 2019 AFP