Mystery "vaping lung illness" SOLVED!
It's Myclobutanil - not 'vaping' - damaging lungs, killing people, & sparking a media frenzy witchhunt on everything from THC itself, to the act of vaporizing, to illegality.
Myclobutanil is considered safe on foods for eating raw, like fruit. But when heated, this fungicide produces Hydrogen Cyanide, a chemical that dissolves lung tissue.
Canada already learned this lesson
When Canada's cannabis market began exploding in 2013, prior to recreational legalization in 2018, "Licensed Producer" insiders were given the green light to grow cannabis for patients. This is when we began seeing a massive increase in the occurrence of a strange lung illness in people smoking cannabis grown with Myclobutanil. In the LP's race for profits, they began using a substance that had no right being sprayed on a plant intended to be smoked or vapourized. At least a few, including a supposedly 100% organic grower (Organigram), were caught using Myclobutanil, and making patients seriously sick, some with permanent lung and nerve damage. Investigations and lawsuits are ongoing.
In 2019, the USA has a "vaping illness crisis"
If you've seen ANY mainstream news in the past few weeks, you know that at least 13 people have now died from "a mysterious lung illness" supposedly "related to vaping", as legalization spreads across the States and cannabis use is on the rise.
Vaporizing (heating a substance until it becomes a gas) involves no smoke or combustion, and therefore fewer byproducts than burning it. When compared to smoking, vaporizing any given compound is always the safer and healthier choice. Nevertheless, the mainstream media have widely announced that it is vaping to blame for the "epidemic" of symptoms, which include coughing up mucus or blood, headaches, dizziness, weakness, paralysis, even coma or death.
But today, new lab results have shown that it's Hydrogen Cyanide (from Myclobutanil) causing this lung and nerve damage, not:
- vapourizing
- legality or illegality
- cannabis
- THC
- or any of the other things wrongly blamed for the crisis.
The Solution
The solution, other than to avoid using 'vape carts' with unknown pre-mixed liquid chemical ingredients, is to go 100% organic. Not just organic, but COMPLETELY pesticide-, fungicide-, and fertilizer-free. Nothing but light, air, water, and soil is required to grow top shelf cannabis, which can be safely extracted and vaporized without fear of any harmful effects.
I wrote a year ago "People are going to die from this," demanding a recall and investigation. Had that happened, some of those people might still be alive, and thousands more not suffering with dissolved lung tissue.
Myclobutanil, just like Neem, is NEVER to be used on tobacco, cannabis, or other plants intended to be smoked or vapourized!
There are safe and effective ways to fight mold WITHOUT dissolving people's lung tissues and nerves!
So go organic, know your grower (BE your grower if possible), and spread the truth that this so-called "vaping illness" has nothing to do with vaping - or with cannabis - and everything to do with ignorance among growers, consumers, and the general public.
DRutter
It's true that we already learned this lesson in Canada. It sucks that they're pulling the wool over people's eyes in the USA, for profit, while people suffer and die. And then they're blaming it on vaping? LOL
So many links, wow.
A lot of important info in one spot! Upvoted.
So, myclobutanyl causes this mystery lung disease...if it really exists, not really sure, and neem causes cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, ok got it, good to know.
And government weed is the biggest culprit of this, yet ironically it's what people think that they would avoid by waiting for legalisation because it's safe.
If there's really a concern with vaping it should be all the stupid chemicals in cartridges that people love so much, just like cigarettes. I don't get why people pay so much for poison. Legalisation wouldn't be complete until cannabis is as bad as government tobacco cigarettes.
All these people are getting lumped together, so when I dab or pen in public, I want to yell out: "this is nothing but full-spectrum organic cannabis oil that I'm vaping here!"
Upvoted, and shared on FB.
Thanks for putting this together. It's amazing how the mainstream media will spin things, even in a concerted way like this, all stations and papers and magazines putting out the same false message. In this case, that vaping (and/or cannabis) is harmful, which is a lie. It's fungicides. Go organic and this can't happen to you!!
This is an important post. It should probably be seen by just about everybody across North America, who have been inundated with anti-vaping, anti-cannabis, and anti-free-market propaganda for years.
RESTEEMED to my hemptastic followers!
not all green is created equal.
some companies care more about money than health... they sacrifice their reputation and harm their customers by cutting corners and using fungicides they shouldnt.
hopefully this awareness can change things quickly. nobody wants their lungs dissolving!
I wondered when you were going to weigh in on the recent vaping hysteria.
One bone of contention though... I think we can still blame "legality or illegality" a bit, or "regalization" as you call it. Note that the cartridges that NBC & CannaSafe found with myclobutanil (and Vitamin E acetate) were all illegal black market products. Here in the US, people are turning to black market cannabis vape carts because of the steep price of the "legal" stuff sold by dispensaries. The taxes are onerous. Really bad. I don't know if the same is going on in Canada.
There's a case to be made that the deaths are the result of legalization and heavy taxes (as opposed to decriminalization).
Myclobutanil and cannabis have both existed a long time, but this problem never came up until legalization in Canada a few years ago, and the USA more recently. People never used it on cannabis until big companies began trying to drive the price per gram down. Trying to say it has something to do with the illegal/unlicensed/free/black/unregulated market is really misguided. Time and time again, it's legal companies doing this to people. We used to "know your grower" but that was made impossible by "legalization", and now there's poison in the legal supply and people are dying.
Well, maybe it's a combo of factors -- legalization and the rise of vape pens. Vape pens are incredibly popular now. And there definitely is a problem with black market/unregulated vape cartridges.
Definitely? I disagree. It's the unregulated cartridges that are safe, and the legalized ones that are killing people.
Where are you getting your information? In the US, the CDC and the mass media is reporting that it's primarily the black market ones causing the problems. Additionally, about 11% of the cases do not even involve cannabis products.
To wit:
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html#what-we-know
If you have a contrary information or evidence, I'd be interested.
I'm saying that the CDC are corrupt. I guess that's the missing piece that has you confused. Once you realize they're lying, anything they said is suspect. You want my evidence? I want theirs. They don't have any and have been caught lying nonstop. Nothing they say matches up with anything else they say, but you want to give them the benefit of the doubt? Come on, you're smarter than that!
I don't doubt it. But I say NBC News (your main source) is also (demonstrably) corrupt and lies like a rug, so anything they say is also suspect. You cannot trust the CDC or the mainstream news. I take anything government agencies or the MSM tells me with a grain of salt, regardless of my own confirmation bias. I would personally love it if NBC had somehow "solved" the mystery here, but their paltry, unscientific testing doesn't mean a whole lot, unfortunately (I'm not even sure CannaSafe is trustworthy). As someone directly concerned with the safety of vaping products, the best I can do is triangulate the truth from a number of directions and use the precautionary principle as best I can.
It's not smart to jump to conclusions simply because they align with my own fears or wishes.
Jumping to a conclusion is good when it's the correct one, and doing so will save people's lives, which (supposedly) is the goal. Further confirmation will come once this theory is put to the test, but so far, the CDC refuses to do so. And they've designated themselves the gatekeepers of the solution to this "crisis".
You're suggesting NBC is lying that a lab they hired detected Myclobutanil in all the tainted samples they sent in? The mainstream media lies, all the time, but how could THAT be a lie? WHY would that be a lie, when the lie would easily be detected and exposed? Sometimes the media tells the truth, like when they have a legit story, and want "the scoop". It drives their ratings and makes them money in a legitimate way. Sure, they lie, but they also tell the truth. Just because the media says Myclobutanil is in all the tainted samples doesn't make that a lie. The veracity of the claim will have to be tested another way.
Myclobutanil's effects when heated and inhaled are exactly the effects seen in this "mystery substance" the CDC can't seem to identify. It dissolves the lungs, leaving people gasping for air, low O2 saturation in the blood, pale, low energy, convolutions, coma, and death. Exactly what the mystery substance is doing to people in the USA right now. Coincidence? Further testing would tell us, but hasn't been done.
Are you aware (if you read the post, you are) that Canada already had an identical "vaping crisis", back in 2015? People were sick and dying. The mystery substance turned out to be Myclobutanil.
There's no way Myclobutanil can show up in 10 of 10 tainted samples and NOT be the culprit. Your devil's advocate position is cute but completely baseless, and only done to be contradictory, and throw doubt on an issue which is costing people their lives. Stop.
The other thing I forgot to mention: your source (NBC) claims laboratory tests found pesticides or residual solvents in all of the cartridges except for the few purchased at legal dispensaries. So how did you come to the conclusion??
This is what I'm trying to understand.
WHY is this post in the "undefined" category? My first tag was cannabis! Something is glitching! :/
That might be why it only got 11 cents in payouts (less than half of that for you)..... ouch. Very few people probably saw this post which clearly took a bit of research and editing.
maybe some people only search "cannabis" tag for posts, and never look at their feed, or your posts etc
Very well written! The best explanation of all the info that I've seen. all those links are excellent. This was the MAIN issue on cnn and other major news outlets, until the lab results showed it was a fungicide (not vaping or cannabis) to blame. Now they've gone silent. The "2019 vaping illness" story is gone.. lol
This is a good article that will help some people learn one of the reasons why you shouldn't vape a lot. I've been smoking for quite some time now, and I feel fine despite the warnings on cigarette packages and doctors' words about how bad smoking is for your health. I have tried tobacco, marijuana, e-cigarettes, and vape. For me, one of the best options out of all of these is this product: https://online-dispensary.net/thc-vape-pen/. So far, it's my favorite, and I don't plan on quitting vaping.