Jessica Wynn

There was a really big scare in 2019 with what was called the EVALI outbreak.

EVALI stands for e-cigarette or vaping associated lung injury.

Yeah, or a lungful.

The CDC traces most cases of EVALI to elicit THC cartridges that are cut with vitamin E acetate.

It caused severe and sometimes fatal lung damage.

Dozens of people died.

Thousands were hospitalized.

It was a chemistry experiment and they mixed the wrong things together.

It seems to be, yeah.

But it revealed how dangerous this unregulated market is.

So some of those cartridges also had heavy metals, even synthetic cannabinoids, which we've discussed how problematic they can be when we did the CBD episode, and pesticides.

Yeah.

Some manufacturing processes introduce harmful pesticides into the vape liquid.

No, it does.

These toxins are in both weed and nicotine vapes, yes.

Oh, yeah, they definitely can.

Most commonly from faulty batteries or overcharging, though.

It wasn't because of the chemical mixture.

So typically not when using them, usually when they're plugged in and charging.

Yeah.