THE VAPING CRISIS.

• Author: Bubar, Joe

There's been a surge in mysterious and life-threatening illnesses linked to vaping. What can be done to stop it?

Maddie Nelson, 18, had vaped a variety of products for three years. Then, this summer, she began experiencing chest pain, nausea, and a fever. She checked into a hospital near Salt Lake City, Utah, but her symptoms worsened, and she had to be hooked up to a machine to help her breathe. Doctors placed her in a medically induced coma for three days, while they frantically worked to save her life.

Nelson is among a growing number of people who've wound up in emergency rooms with lung injuries tied to vaping. As of mid-October, nearly 1,500 people had suffered from severe vaping-related illnesses and 33 had died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.).

Federal health officials are still trying to determine which products and substances are causing the illnesses. But as their investigation continues, they've issued a stark warning to stop using vaping products immediately, particularly those containing THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes users high. Spurred by the illnesses and by the explosive growth of vaping among teens, many states are cracking down on flavored e-cigarette sales, and the Trump administration has said that it would draft a ban on them too.

"These are really serious injuries in the lung," says Dr. Anne Schuchat of the C.D.C., "and we don't know how well people will recover from them, whether lung damage may be permanent."

The Rise of E-cigarettes

Like Nelson, many of those affected have been young people--about 36 percent of patients were 20 years old or younger. Vaping among American teens has skyrocketed in recent years. More than a quarter of high school students say they've vaped nicotine in the past month--up from about 12 percent in 2017, according to the C.D.C. (see graph).

Teens have especially been attracted to the sleek devices and the flavors made by Juul Labs, which now dominates the market. That may not be accidental. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration began investigating whether Juul Labs intentionally marketed to youth. The company denies that it sought to hook teens and insists its products are for people who want to quit smoking traditional cigarettes.

Invented more than 15 years ago, e-cigarettes were intended to be a healthier alternative to tobacco. But many doctors have long cautioned that nicotine, the highly addictive substance that's in both...