The Middlesex-London Health Unit confirmed in a press conference on September 18 that a youth was put on life-support, after using a vaping device in what is the first reported case of illness linked to the practice in the country.
The MLHU said the youth took to vaping daily, and they were informed by a doctor of the youth’s case after he was sent to the hospital. The teenager has since been released and is doing well.
myFM talked to the Health Unit’s Manager of Chronic Disease and Tobacco Control Linda Stobo who couldn’t outright guarantee vaping caused the teenager’s illness, but all signs point to it.
The case comes at a time where hundreds of illnesses in the United States and a few deaths are being linked back to vaping products. Stobo says the way these products are marketed as harmless is incorrect and people should now realize that.
The province is also getting involved. Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott issued an order which requires public hospitals to provide statistical, non-identifying information about vaping-related severe pulmonary disease to Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.