Vitamin E acetate, an ingredient added to tetrahydrocannabinol (Thc) products – one of the major active ingredients of cannabis – has been identified as a “very strong cause” in the diseases linked to e-cigarettes that have made 2051 people in the US sick, killing some 40 people. This was reported by the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention (Cdc), but it leaves open the possibility that other chemicals or toxins may cause serious respiratory diseases. The discovery is based on the analysis of fluid samples taken from the lungs of 29 sick patients, where vitamin compounds were found. “For the first time we have discovered a potential toxin of concern, vitamin E acetate, in biological samples of patients” with e-cig-related lung damage, said Anne Schuchat, CoC number two at a press conference. The samples, she explained, “have provided evidence of the presence of vitamin E acetate at the main site of lung injury.
