There is no denying that 2019 was rough for vaping. A massive number of people in the United States started becoming sick, with several people dying of a respiratory condition linked to vaping. The e-cigarette or vaping associated lung injury (EVALI) caused up 2,500 people to be hospitalized and 54 deaths.

The outbreak caused a sea of panic to sweep around the globe. In over a decade, there had been minimal adverse health problems linked to vaping and e-cigarettes. Was this the danger that all those anti-vapers had been screaming about for so long?

No. It wasn’t. However, that didn’t stop a wave of panic and knee-jerk reactions from different governments around the world that saw them rushing to ban vaping and all vaping related products. All this despite a large group of vaping and medical experts, as well as the vaping community, coming forward to say that it wasn’t because of e-cigarettes.

While it was terrible for everyone involved and their families, the CDC eventually linked the illnesses to vitamin E acetate. It was used as an additive to thicken illegal THC vape liquid — not e-liquid. Vitamin E acetate can be dangerous when inhaled. It was because the vape cartridges were unlawful, and most of the people involved were minors and didn’t want to get in any trouble. It took a long time to narrow down the cause of the illness.

Eventually, with the cause located and the majority of the illegal cartridges removed from the market, the crisis started to decrease, and calmer heads prevailed.

It wasn’t all bad news for vaping, though. The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a study that claimed that for the first time that the number of men using tobacco products had stopped increasing and could be declining. That news coincided with reports in the UK that vaping was helping people quit smoking. Scientists still believe that e-cigarettes are a safer and healthier option than smoking traditional cigarettes.

Stay tuned for more vaping related news.