Vaping is linked to a wave of severe lung injuries and deaths in Canada and the United States. In Canada, as of November 20, 2019, there were eleven confirmed or probable cases of severe lung illness related to vaping, says Health Canada.

The situation is even more alarming in the United States where there were 2,290 confirmed cases reported as of Nov. 20, said the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Forty-seven deaths were confirmed in 25 states as of Nov. 20.

Though both countries are still trying to determine which substances cause the illness linked to vaping, the reinsurer Munich Re has alerted insurance companies to the new threat.

Munich Re alert

Though "the number of Canadian cases is small”, Munich Re said “there is a potential short-term risk” linked to vaping and says it wishes to “re-emphasize the potential for long-term consequences of vaping.”

In a message published on Oct. 22, Munich Re said it “continues to strongly recommend” to insurers “that electronic cigarette users, even if claiming not to use nicotine products or test negative for cotinine, should be considered as smokers.”

Data collected by InsuranceINTEL – a product of The Insurance Journal Publishing Group – shows that most Canadian life and health insurance companies consider those who have used an electronic cigarette in the last 12 months to be smokers.

Insurers increasingly no longer consider smokers to be people who use cannabis. However, people who use cannabis with tobacco and/or an electronic cigarette are generally still considered smokers by Canadian insurers, says InsuranceINTEL.

Products containing cannabis

Vaping consists of inhaling and exhaling chemicals using a device, such as an electronic cigarette. Vaping products containing THC, the psychoactive substance of cannabis, are directly blamed by the CDC, which recommends that vapers not use it. The CDC also recommends that people should not buy any type of e-cigarette, or vaping, products, particularly those containing THC from informal sources like friends, or family, or in-person or online dealers.

The CDC also warned of Vitamin E acetate, which “is used as an additive, most notably as a thickening agent in THC-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, products.” It has been found in fluid samples taken from the lungs of at least 29 patients from 10 different states in the United States with severe pulmonary disease related to vaping.

THC and Vitamin E acetate are among the many substances still under review, with the CDC believing that the outbreak may have several causes. Vapers should consult a physician if they experience symptoms of lung disease, such as coughing, shortness of breath, chills, chest or stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, or weight loss.