Connecticut public health commissioner asks Congress for more resources to fight vaping emergency

Connecticut’s public health commissioner told a congressional panel Wednesday that her department and health agencies nationwide need more resources to combat an outbreak of vaping-related lung injuries that have led to over 1,300 hospitalizations and 26 deaths across the country, including 31 illnesses and one death in the state.

Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell told the panel, chaired by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, that she has ordered doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals to report all such illnesses to the Department of Public Health and has assigned personnel from five sections of her agency -- infectious disease, tobacco prevention, injuries, toxicology and the state lab -- to interview sickened patients and collect clinical specimens and samples of the vaping products and devices.

She said the department is responding much the way it would to a foodborne illness or an infectious disease.

“We are taking these critical resources away from other crucial areas of our mission to deal with this ongoing outbreak,” Coleman-Mitchell said.

The outbreak has touched 49 states and Washington, D.C, according to the Centers for Disease Control. No single cause has been identified. The cases began to surface in late summer.

Massachusetts has issued a moratorium on vaping products, triggering at least four lawsuits from retailers. New York banned flavored electronic cigarettes, but that ban was blocked as part of an ongoing lawsuit.

Connecticut has yet to take such steps. Gov. Ned Lamont has said he was not certain he has the legal authority to temporarily ban the sale of vaping products. Coleman-Mitchell has asked state residents to refrain from using the products while the investigation into the illnesses is underway.

DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee that convened the hearing, asked Anne Schuchat, deputy director of the CDC, why the agency hasn’t come right out and told everyone to stop using vaping products until a cause is identified. Schuchat said young people, pregnant women and people who haven’t vaped before should never start, but said the CDC is waiting to pinpoint the cause of the emergency before issuing sterner warnings to experienced adults.

Coleman-Mitchell said all the patients interviewed in Connecticut have used cannabis products as well as nicotine. The youngest person in Connecticut with a vaping injury was 15.

She said “no consistent evidence of an infectious cause has been discovered. We therefore suspect the cause is a chemical exposure. Many of the patients have reported purchasing cannabis vaping cartridges off the street or from friends. So the black market for these vaping products appears to be a significant factor.”

Coleman-Mitchell also said the new fourth-generation batteries are burning hotter and producing more vapor.

“As long as there is a black market for vaping products that adds THC from marijuana to the liquid mixture and is cheaper than anything you can find in a legal marijuana dispensary, then we are very likely going to see ongoing cases of vaping-related lung disease,” Coleman-Mitchell said.

She lamented that a surge in e-cigarette use is beginning to unravel decades worth of progress in reducing tobacco use.

In 2017, just shy of 25 percent of high school seniors in Connecticut were vaping, she said.

Coleman-Mitchell said she supports legislation “to commit resources to the CDC to invest in better data collection and streamlined management of the response to this national vaping epidemic.”

Josh Kovner can be reached at jkovner@courant.com.

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