Adding to the list of injuries caused by e-cigarettes this year is that of a 33-year-old man who reportedly burned a hole in his lung due to a malfunctioning e-cigarette.
Richard Courtney from Surrey, England was on his way home from visiting a friend when suddenly started coughing and tasted fluid in his mouth. His condition worsened the morning after.
"It felt like I'd got a trapped nerve in my shoulder. In the morning I had a really tight chest and couldn't breathe properly," Courtney recalled. The worsening symptoms prompted Courtney to go to the hospital.
Doctors found out that Courtney's right lung was only functioning up to 25 percent of its total capacity. One of the nurses showed Courtney how it could have happened.
"One of the nurses there put my vape on an oxygen tube and showed that it was spitting liquid out," Courtney said. As it turned out, the nicotine fluid that was meant to produce the smoke was not effectively vaporized, causing the heated liquid to spill down his throat and damage his lungs.
Courtney was confined for a night in the Acute Medical Unit of East Surrey Hospital due to his injuries and was given an inhaler after discharge. Five days later, however, he returned after experiencing chest tightness, prompting him to spend another night.
As of now, he has been discharged and has returned to work. Courtney said that he turned to e-cigarette smoking in an attempt to quit smoking, but never thought something like this could happen to him.
"I started vaping to try to give up after 16 years of smoking," Courtney said. "I can't believe it put me in hospital."
KangerTech, the Chinese company that manufactured the e-cigarette Courtney used, has not released any comments regarding the incident.
E-cigarettes rose in popularity since 2007, being touted as the healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes. Studies, however, were able to prove that this claim is false, linking e-cigarette use to cancer, birth defects and risk for infertility. This is because e-cigarettes, like traditional ones, still use liquids that contain nicotine.
"E-cigarettes and other vaping products typically contain nicotine, a chemical known to cause serious reproductive health problems," Michael Green, Executive Director for the Center of Environmental Health, said. "Animal studies have linked nicotine alone to fertility problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory problems and other health issues."
There is also the issue of safety as malfunctioning e-cigarettes are reportedly causing severe injuries. Last July, a man suffered first-degree burns and a blast hole on the roof of his mouth when his e-cigarette exploded while he was smoking. He fell into a coma and had to be put in intensive care for months due to his injury.
