Colorado has banned the state’s marijuana industry from adding vitamin E acetate, the chemical additive linked to vaping illnesses by federal health officials, to products meant for inhalation.
On November 8, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a potential culprit behind the recent vaping illnesses: vitamin E acetate. However, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division had already prohibited the additive as an ingredient days earlier, and also banned two more ingredients with connections to short- and long-term health issues. In addition to vitamin E acetate, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and medium chain triglycerides (MCT oil) are now ruled out for marijuana products meant for inhalation.
The new MED rules, announced November 5, take effect on January 1, 2020, but have been proposed and discussed at rulemaking meetings over the fall.
Over the past several months, more than 2,000 people nationwide have have been hospitalized and at least 39 have died because of lung illnesses connected to vaporizer products. At least one of those deaths and a handful of hospital visits have happened in Colorado. Both marijuana and nicotine products have been linked to cases in this state; no specific vaping product has been named in connection with the Colorado death.
Thomas Mitchell – Westword – November 11, 2019.
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