Vaping caused collapsed lung?

[wossgoinon]

My 18 yr son is currently on a drain in hospital due to a collapsed lung awaiting surgery.

I to pick up clothes for him as he will be in hospital for at least 2 weeks and I found vapes in his drawers.

Is there evidence to suggest that vaping may have caused this?

he is young, fit and well otherwise and this is a complete shock

@Allthecatsandcosyblankets

me too. I wasn’t really bothered about vaping and potential health issues until I had my baby but now I worry!

Started smoking at 13 and gave up 7 years ago (with the odd fag here and there but nothing for several years now) if I didn’t have a vape I would still smoke.

Hoping I can give up soon!

However I will say, that we won’t ever inhale just clean air even if we didn’t vape or smoke. There will always be some sort of air pollution surely, even if it’s just a scented candle?

@MissJam @Allthecatsandcosyblankets you are both absolutely doing the right thing by shifting from cigs to vaping and this will have improved your current and future health and longevity many, many ,many times over....it's really not about putting people like yourselves off and anyone in the health service would far rather someone used vapes than smoked. You are also doing the right thing by your children as children of smokers are far more likely to smoke themselves.
The problem is really about children and young people and non-smokers starting to vape ( though hard to know whether these are the same kids who historically would have started to smoke as teens). If someone wants to ultimately kick the habit of smoking anything full-stop, than traditional smoking cessation products may be more beneficial, solely because people who vape are often just as addicted to the nicotine so coming off vapes can be equally difficult. I have know people who "have to" vape far more than they ever smoked and teachers in schools are starting to get issues with pupils becoming "antsy" and unable to focus during the school day because of their addiction to nicotine.

@wossgoinon I hope all has gone well today

This. It's worrying isn't it.

I had a spontaneously collapsed lung at 19.

I didn’t smoke (or vape as they didn’t exist) and the doctor told me it was likely because I was tall and slim!

I had another partial collapse during an operation years later but no long term effects and haven’t had it again since (12 years now)

Hi everyone

Surgery is over. He is in a lot of pain and has multiple wires and machines. I was a big baby and had to steady myself as I nearly fainted seeing him. Just very thankful to the NHS at the moment as they have been very attentive and nothing has been too much trouble

Glad the surgery is over with, and I hope he makes a swift recovery - they do at that age! Must be very scary for you but the worst is over and soon he will be at home and feeling much better.

Glad to hear he's being well looked after. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

An ex had two spontaneous pneumothoraxes, his first at 15. He was very tall and thin for the first, having grown from apparently about 5'5" to over 6" tall in under a year (final height 6'5") and the second was shortly after he had started weight training and put on a large amount of muscle mass in a very short time.

It's very common.

He’ll be home before you know it @wossgoinon. Wishing him a speedy recovery and you some calm.

Yep, just reinforcing the tall and skinny comments. Higher risk group.

"Primary spontaneous pneumothorax most often occurs in people without an identified gene mutation. The cause of the condition in these individuals is often unknown. Tall young men are at increased risk of developing primary spontaneous pneumothorax; researchers suggest that rapid growth of the chest during growth spurts may increase the likelihood of forming blebs. Long-term smoking also greatly increases the risk of developing primary spontaneous pneumothorax in both men and women."
"Blebs may be present on an individual's lung (or lungs) for a long time before they rupture. Many things can cause a bleb to rupture, such as changes in air pressure or a very sudden deep breath."
"In the lungs, folliculin is found in the connective tissue cells that allow the lungs to contract and expand when breathing. Folliculin is also produced in cells that line the small air sacs (alveoli). Researchers have not determined the protein's function, but they believe it may help control the growth and division of cells. Folliculin may play a role in repairing and re-forming lung tissue following damage. One theory is that the altered folliculin protein may trigger inflammation within the lung tissue that could alter and damage the tissue, causing blebs."
Needless to say our lungs are precious, we regularly inhale enough pollution to cause damage to our lungs hence why its a bad idea to actively pursue anything that takes more potentially damaging substances into our lungs!

"Cannabis smoking is associated with pneumothorax, an effect that may be attributed to both parenchymal damage from smoke and the longer breath-holds or valsalva manoeuvres that may be associated with smoking cannabis."

@Trinity65 yes. it can be associated with Marfan syndrome. Presumably the OP's sone will be investigated for this.

Source?

Those quotes don't say vaping is safe though. Just that it's safer than smoking, which is quite a low bar given the issues that smoking causes!

"Vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking tobacco. It is believed to be around 1/20th of the risk...

...No doubt vaping will kill some people

Just because vaping is not as harmful as smoking, that doesn't make it OK. It's a useful tool for smokers who are struggling to quit, because it will reduce their risk of disease. But for a young person who has never smoked, it is going to increase their risk.

Also, this is meaningless:

"The vape liquid market is regulated in the UK"

The tobacco market is regulated in the UK too, but that doesn't stop people dying of smoking related conditions.

'Regulated' =/= safe

The pre made vapes in the sticks are the worst ones. The kids might as well open a pack of 20 and smoke them.
My nephew smokes them and it's caused him some issues. He's a little shite atm though and knows best so won't listen to anyone.

Nope, because TodayInahurry is talking shite by using the words extremely damaging. If you've never smoked dont start vaping, if you're a smoker, then you're reducing harm by at least 95% (for starters: no tar, no carbon monoxide, no combustion), if you start vaping.

What is extremely damaging is the junk science purveyors who put smokers off trying vaping with their ridiculous and unfounded speculation and rabble rousing. The well known junk science purveyors mostly being from the USA, Australia, latterly Scotland and most of the red tops. Add in people on forums googling and finding garbage that suits their narrative and posting it up on forums like this one.

Im glad you clarified @tiger2691 because I agree that as an alternative to smoking then harm is reduced so much. I'm thinking more of those who have never really smoked and do take it up, and are now addicted.

You only need to mention vaping on MN and the panicky, hand-wringing unscientific reponses you get are hysterical: talk about how to bang on about vaping when you know nothing about vaping.

@LangClegsInSpace is the only person I've seen so far in this thread who's being sensible about it. Read the gov link s/he gave and ignore everyone who talks about vape "oils". Vaping in the UK is heavily regulated

OP, hope recovery is swift for DS and Marfan's etc is excluded.

There was a really interesting segment on TV news on this recently. The sentiment was very much, compared to smoking vaping is much less harmful. Compared to breathing air it is very harmful. For young people any exposure to nicotine is of increased risk because of the amount of neuro development occuring in adolescents. There are lots of studies linking later life issues with addictions etc with adolescent exposure to nicotine.

www.channel4.com/news/vaping-causing-significant-harm-to-non-smokers-says-epidemiologist

Public Health messages try to avoid nuance, but nuance is what's needed when discussing the harms of vaping.

It can just be spontaneous - happened to my dad when he was a young (tall and skinny) 18 yr old when he was having a snowball fight with his younger brother.

That aside, it might scare him into ditching the vapes.

I hope he makes a speedy recovery OP.

coincidentally theres just been a report on BBC news about it with focus on an increasing issues for children using them . Also trading standards reporting that up to a 1/3 of vaping products sold on the high street are illegal and break govt. standards .