Vaping ‘linked to 200 health problems in UK including pneumonia’

Expert warns US outbreak of lung disease linked to e-cigarettes may spread to Britain

Vaping has been linked to 200 health problems – including pneumonia and heart disorders – in the UK over the last five years, according to a government watchdog.

The illnesses were listed in 74 separate “Yellow Card” reports about e-cigarettes filed to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) by the public and healthcare professionals.

Forty-nine of the complaints received since 1 January 2014 were classified as serious but none of them resulted in death.

The figures emerged as officials were accused of downplaying the risk of vaping illnesses “spreading” to Britain from the US, where at least 12 deaths and 805 cases of lung injury are under investigation.

Public Health England (PHE) said most of the American cases “were linked to people using illicit vaping fluid”, such as those containing cannabis products like THC, and pointed to the UK’s tighter safety regulations.

However, Stanton Gantz, director of the centre for tobacco control and education at the University of California, San Francisco, said it was wrong to dismiss vaping lung disease as “an American phenomenon”.

“To argue that the health effects being observed somehow stop at the water line when you move on to the British Isles is silly,” he told The Observer.

He pointed to the case of a 34-year-old woman who was diagnosed with lipoid pneumonia after being admitted to a Birmingham hospital in 2016.

Doctors advised her to quit vaping after identifying the cause as vegetable glycerine found in e-cigarretes, according to a case report in the British Medical Journal.

The death from lipoid pneumonia of 57-year-old Terry Miller in 2011 was also linked to the use of e-cigarettes after oil was found in his lungs. A coroner returned an open verdict at the inquest after saying he could not be sure whether vaping was a contributory factor.

While the 200 adverse reactions listed in the UK Yellow Card reports include major health problems such as cardiac arrest, epilepsy and spontaneous abortion, they also include coughs, sneezing and headaches.

The MHRA said it is reviewing the information gathered by the Yellow Card scheme and emphasised that the reports of adverse reactions did not necessarily mean that they were caused by vaping.

A spokesperson said: “The MHRA assesses all reports received in association with nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and should any potential safety concerns be identified we will take appropriate action to protect public health.”

An estimated 3.6 million people in the UK use vapes, according to a survey earlier this year.

PHE advises that vaping is far safer than smoking, which kills nearly 100,000 people every year in the UK. There were around 7.2 million British adult smokers in 2018, according to official figures.

“It would be tragic if smokers who could quit with the help of e-cigarettes did not do so because of false fears about their safety,” said professor John Newton, PHE’s director of health improvement.