British vapers reassured after US illnesses and deaths

Health experts are reassuring British vapers in the wake of recent vaping-related hospitalizations and deaths in the United States, reports The Guardian.

Martin Dockrell, head of tobacco control at Public Health England, said most cases in the U.S. appeared to be linked to illicit vaping fluid, bought on the streets or homemade, with some containing cannabis products.

“Unlike the U.S., all e-cigarette products in the U.K. are tightly regulated for quality and safety by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and they operate the yellow card scheme, encouraging vapers to report any bad experiences,” he was quoted as saying.

“It seems highly unlikely that widely available nicotine-containing vaping products, particularly of the type regulated in Europe, are causing these cases,” said Linda Bauld, a public health expert at Edinburgh University.

“All the evidence to date suggests that illicit marijuana vaping products (THC oils) are the cause. In particular, a compound called tocopherol acetate may be the culprit.”

According to Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, to date no serious vaping side-effects have been reported in the U.K.