Some flavours of vapes can contain allergens, particularly if the flavour of the vape is intending to imitate a food that would normally contain them.
Allergic reactions can also come from propane glycol, a common ingredient of vape liquid that can cause symptoms like wheezing and hives.
The Times reports that the charity Natasha Allergy Research Foundation is highlighting concerns over vapes after a number of children were hospitalised for having an allergic reaction.
The charity’s founder Nadim Ednan-Laperouse OBE said there were ‘extremely concerning’ reports of allergic reactions from the second-hand smoke of vapes, and that ‘the evidence linking vape smoke and allergic reactions is still emerging’.
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Vape manufacturers don’t have to list allergen information but a campaign is hoping to change this. (Getty Stock Photo)
One such case of this occurred with Ewan Fisher, who became ill at the age of 16 after he’d been vaping for a few months.
In 2017 he ended up being taken to Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust after suffering a ‘catastrophic’ respiratory failure and had to be placed on life support.
Fisher was treated for hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is an allergic reaction to something breathed in that triggers an inflammation of lung tissue.
After his allergic reaction Ewan had to be put on a specific type of life support called ‘extra corporeal membrane oxygenation’ (Ecmo) where an artificial lung puts oxygen in the blood and pumps it around the body.
Doctors who treated Ewan said that vaping was to blame for his allergic reaction and having to be placed on life support, and they knew of other cases in the UK where a similar thing had happened.
When he was 16, Ewan Fisher had to be placed on life support after he had an allergic reaction to vaping. (PA)
Ewan had suffered from a fever before he was hospitalised, saying after his recovery that he had ‘a choking cough and I was struggling to breathe’.
His mum got very worried about him and took him to hospital, where he ‘ended up in intensive care and needed two forms of life support’ as he admitted he ‘almost died’.
Ewan’s recovery took 14 months in total, with the teenager having started vaping in an attempt to quit smoking.
According to The Times there has been a dramatic rise in vaping since the pandemic, and that last year over 350 people were hospitalised due to complications from vaping including 50 children.
Selling vapes to under 18s is illegal in the UK but it obviously happens a lot, and the NHS reckons that a quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds have vaped while one in 10 are regularly huffing and puffing away on them.
It can negatively impact all sorts of different parts of the body, and disposable vapes are even being banned in the UK.
Leeanne Anderson claimed that her rechargeable e-cig battery exploded on 30 January inside of her puffer jacket pocket, leading to shocking burns on her body.
The 43-year-old from Camberley, Surrey, had decided to visit her sister on the day of the incident, after having been discharged from hospital due to wrist surgery the previous day.
But it was only minutes after her arrival that Leeanne heard a ‘big explosion’ before being engulfed in flames.
The mum explained that her puffer coat ‘completely melted off’ due to the fire as her sister Elizabeth Parker and brother-in-law Alan Parker attempted to put it out.
Leeanne explained that her leg was left ‘completely charred’ after the ordeal as well as severe burns on her left hand.
Leeanne said: “I was still quite out of it from my surgery so didn’t really know what was going on.
“Then my coat just lit up in flames. My brother-in-law saw that and threw me across the sofa and my sister was there trying to rip my coat off me because one side was completely melted.
“When they got all my clothes off me, my sister ran me straight upstairs and threw me in the bath. My brother-in-law ripped my sling off me because it was in flames.
“The flames were getting higher and higher. They went from my knee up to my shoulder – the whole length of my coat.”
Leeanne quickly realised her vape battery had exploded, leaving her with ‘completely charred skin’.
She said: “My whole leg was completely charred, my stomach was burnt.
“I burnt a couple of fingers on my surgery hand but my left hand got the brunt of it. From my knee up it was completely charred.”
She went on to say that it was only after her brother-in-law asked her where her vape was that she realised ‘it was on the sofa but I had the battery in my pocket’ and that ‘there was no battery left at all – just sheets of copper welded to the carpet and my coat.’
Frimley Park Hospital in Camberley assessed Leeanne after the explosion and bandaged her burned hand.
Leeanne credits her sister and brother-in-law for saving her life and warned that batteries should be kept in a ‘carry case’ and away from things like your phone, keys, or money.
