Giving Compass' Take:

• Hasmeena Kathuria, who has served as a pulmonologist for 20 years, discusses how she has never been so alarmed as she is now by recent cases of severe lung problems and deaths linked to vaping.

• What is the role of donors in funding health-related solutions when it comes to vaping? 

• Here's an article on effective strategies to prevent teen vaping. 

“Now, in addition to creating an epidemic of nicotine-addicted youth, vaping e-cigarette products is sending kids to the ER with lung failure,” she says.

There have now been more than 450 reports of severe lung problems, and just in the last month, 6 deaths all linked to the use of e-cigarettes and marijuana vaping pens in 33 different states.

The medical community, says Kathuria, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University’s School of Medicine and a Boston Medical Center physician in pulmonary, critical care and of sleep medicine, is terrified, and the government has recommended that people stop vaping entirely until we learn more answers.

The Trump administration announced that it would move to ban all flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine pods from the market, including popular mint and menthol varieties. Michigan became the first state to ban flavored e-cigarettes. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he’d pursue the ban of flavored e-cigarettes. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker declared the recent surge of vaping-related illnesses a public health emergency, calling for a four-month ban on all vaping products—both tobacco and marijuana e-cigarettes—and vaping devices being sold in the state.

Read the full article on deaths and injuries linked to vaping by Kat McAlpine at Futurity.