Taiwanese teenager diagnosed with pneumonia linked to vaping

台灣少年罹患肺炎與電子菸有關

Nearly 60,000 Taiwanese teens smoke e-cigarettes despite unknown long-term effects


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A 15-year-old Taiwanese teenager was diagnosed with pneumonia in September after developing a habit of smoking electronic cigarettes four years ago.

The Chung Shan Medical University (CSMU) Hospital said Tuesday (Dec. 1) that it had treated a young patient in September after he experienced symptoms of coughing, shortness of breath, epigastralgia, and nausea. It said an MRI scan of the boy's lungs showed that he was suffering from bilateral pneumonia, which can seriously inflame and scar a person's lungs.

The hospital said the boy admitted he had been smoking e-cigarettes since he was 11 without his parents' knowledge. The doctors determined the cause of the boy's illness to be vaping and said he was the first vaping-associated case of pneumonia reported in Taiwan, according to CNA.

A survey conducted by the Health Promotion Administration in 2019 also showed that both e-cigarettes and regular tobacco products have caught on among Taiwanese teenagers. It is estimated that at least 81,000 teenagers smoke cigarettes, 57,000 smoke e-cigarettes, and 16,000 use heated tobacco products.

Lue Ko-huang (呂克桓), a pediatrician at CSMU Hospital, pointed out that while Taiwan's Health Promotion Administration is openly opposed to legalizing vapes, the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act has not been amended for 13 years and has relatively light punishments for e-cigarette users. He added that vaping products have become more accessible for teenagers online and at physical stores across the country.

Lue emphasized that e-cigarettes easily appeal to young Taiwanese because of the variety of flavored oils. He warned that most vaping devices contain nicotine and other harmful ingredients and that they can be just as addictive as other tobacco products.

Although not much is known about the long-term effects of using e-cigarettes, Lue said they could possibly hinder a user's brain development and cause damage to their respiratory system. He urged the government to address the danger of vaping directly and introduce a comprehensive ban, reported HiNet.

The number of American teens who vape regularly has also been on the rise over the last decade. As of November 2020, at least 2,807 people have been hospitalized in that country for having vaping-related lung illnesses and 68 of them have died. In many of the cases, the patients' devices had been modified to vape Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana.

Despite Taiwan's increasingly concerned attitude toward vaping, the practice is still widely considered safer than traditional cigarettes and carries a "small fraction of the risk" of tobacco products, according to the U.K.'s National Health Service.