‘Lungs were designed to breathe air, nothing else’

As deaths rise from severe lung illness linked to use of a vaping device, Northwestern Medicine experts are available to discuss the dangers connected to vaping.

Dr. Ravi Kalhan is a professor of medicine and director of the Asthma and COPD Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He currently doing research on vaping as part of a larger National Institutes of Health-funded study on millennial lung health. He can be reached at r-kalhan@northwestern.edu. 

Quote from Dr. Kalhan:

“Lungs were designed to breathe air, not combinations of various chemicals and oils. The recent news regarding vaping magnifies this once again.”

Dr. Samuel Kim is an associate professor of surgery in thoracic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who can talk to reporters about diseases related to the lung or esophagus. He can be reached at samuel.kim2@nm.org.

Quote from Dr. Kim:

“I think the recent episodes of vaping-related lung illness demonstrate how little we know about the content inside these products and how unregulated the industry is. Until more concrete evidence emerges related to the product safety and manufacturing guidelines, both the short-term and long-term use of e-cigarette, especially THC-related products, must be done so with an extreme caution. “