Sarah Wheaton, commenting on Politico, observes that the so-called vaping sickness outbreak that is gripping the US seems not to be happening in Europe. Those who campaign against vaping are fully aware of such but are looking for a way to address this by cooking up fictions about the occurrence of lipoid pneumonia and lung disease in the UK.
A scientific relations director with the European Respiratory Society, Constantine Vardavas recently released a statement asserting that no such cases have been observed recently in Europe.
However, it is no surprise to see Stanton Glantz, a known serial fabricatorputting effort to change this fact. On his Twitter page, citing his blog as evidence, he blindly claims that there are rising cases of Lipoid Pneumonia occurring from the use of e-cigs in England.
According to Glantz, there have been reported cases from different locations, which have been neglected. In response to a report from clinicians at the Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Glantz stated that these clinicians are wedded to e-cigs which is why they maintain that the lipoid pneumonia cases are an American phenomenon.
He went further to say that there is no sense in assuming that the health effects observed in the US will merely stop at the British borderline. According to him, there’s some kind of sentiment and a groupthink going on.
However, to further lay claim that e-cig is the cause of lipoid pneumonia, Walters, Burge, and Trotter reported that a young female vaper showed symptoms like night sweats, fever, progressive dyspnoea on exertion and insidious onset cough and had respiratory failure as at the time of admission to the hospital.
Later on, a thoracoscopic surgical biopsy was carried out and the video suggested the presence of lipoid pneumonia. However, vegetable glycerine was the only source of lipid that was present in the e-cigarette.
Let’s analyze this properly. Glantz, Walters, Burge, Trotter, and Viswam have failed to understand that glycerol, on its own, is not a lipid but a compound involved in its (lipid) formation. Every carbon atom in glycerol has a hydroxyl group attached which makes this compound soluble in water. So, how can you say it is a lipid?
On several occasions, Glantz has selectively ignored this glaring fact even when attempts have been made to put him through. Two of the doctors responsible for the paper on “Respiratory failure caused by lipoid pneumonia from vaping e-cigarettes” have been contacted on this issue but till now, they have not responded.
However, Ricardo Polosa responded to a similar report in 2015 when he said that it is not possible for vaping to cause lipoid pneumonia. His reason was that there is an absence of any fatlike material in the vaporization of commercially available e-liquids.
This statement reflects Doctor Konstantinos ideas about this issue in 2014 when he said that there is no scientific proof that lipoid pneumonia is caused by glycerol. His statement which is making rounds on media is already exposing those scientists who should have a basic understanding of the laws of chemistry.