--- title: More Than 500 People Have Gotten Sick After Vaping description: 530 people have gotten serious lung illnesses after vaping, according to the CDC, and seven have died. It's not clear what's to blame. canonical: https://time.com/5681190/cdc-vaping-lung-illnesses/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-19T16:01:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:24:07.909Z article:section: Health og:title: 'I Wish We Had More Answers': Health Officials Still Don't Know Why 500 People Have Gotten Sick After Vaping og:description: Seven people have died og:url: https://time.com/5681190/cdc-vaping-lung-illnesses/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43822b5c77d2278/698a032e656a3f06bebd8f27/vaping-lung-disease.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2016 og:image:height: 1134 og:image:alt: Young man vaping by a wall og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'I Wish We Had More Answers': Health Officials Still Don't Know Why 500 People Have Gotten Sick After Vaping twitter:description: Seven people have died twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43822b5c77d2278/698a032e656a3f06bebd8f27/vaping-lung-disease.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I Wish We Had More Answers': Health Officials Still Don't Know Why 500 People Have Gotten Sick After Vaping > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 19, 2019 4:01 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 19, 2019 4:01 PM UTC More than 500 people have developed serious lung illnesses after vaping, and seven have died — but there’s still not a clear cause, federal health officials said on a call with reporters Thursday. “We at \[the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\] are very concerned about the occurrence of life-threatening illnesses in otherwise healthy young people,” CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat said on the call. “I wish we had more answers.” The CDC has, as of Sept. 17, received reports of 530 confirmed and probable cases of vaping-related lung illnesses, and seven confirmed deaths. More than half of these diagnoses have been among people younger than 25, Schuchat said, and 16% have been among those younger than 18\. Nearly three-quarters of the cases have been reported among men. Officials from the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been investigating the rash of vaping-related lung illnesses since earlier this summer, and both have activated emergency operations centers to help. Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, also said on the call that the agency’s Office of Criminal Investigations is running a parallel investigation aimed at determining what is making people sick, and the dynamics of the supply chain. The FDA is not seeking to prosecute individual e-cigarette users, Zeller clarified. “We are leaving no stone unturned and following all potential leads,” he said. Despite the thorough investigation, officials have not pointed to a specific substance, device or product that appears to blame for the illnesses, or that has been consistent among all cases. Early indictions suggest most people who got sick [vaped products containing THC](https://time.com/5670147/vaping-marijuana-lung-disease/), a compound in marijuana, either instead of or in addition to nicotine. Some, however, only reported using nicotine, Schuchat said. While the entire [vaping industry is largely unregulated](https://time.com/5680988/juul-vaping-health-crisis/), there’s even less oversight of cannabis products. Many marijuana-derived vaping products — especially bootleg products produced by black and gray market companies — do not live up to strict manufacturing standards, or are not subject to safety testing. Chemicals added to vaping concentrates, to alter things like flavor and consistency, may also be harmful to the lungs, [experts say](https://time.com/5670147/vaping-marijuana-lung-disease/). Across states, people sickened in the outbreak have been exhibiting symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath, chest pain and (in some cases) gastrointestinal distress. In serious cases, symptoms have progressed to severe lung damage and [death](https://time.com/5679005/vaping-death/). Schuchat emphasized how “challenging” and “complex” the investigation is, due to its scope, the number of possible causal agents and patients’ inability or unwillingness to fully disclose what they used. She urged Americans to “consider not using e-cigarettes or vaping products” and to “take these recommendations seriously.” Vaping-related illness has not been limited to the U.S., either. On Wednesday, [Canadian health officials confirmed](https://time.com/5680528/vaping-lung-illness-canada/) that a teenager there had been diagnosed with “severe respiratory illness” linked to e-cigarette use. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5681190/cdc-vaping-lung-illnesses/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5681190/cdc-vaping-lung-illnesses/"},"headline":"'I Wish We Had More Answers': Health Officials Still Don't Know Why 500 People Have Gotten Sick After Vaping","datePublished":"2019-09-19T16:01:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:24:07.909Z","description":"Seven people have died","url":"https://time.com/5681190/cdc-vaping-lung-illnesses/","keywords":["Public Health","Vaping","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43822b5c77d2278/698a032e656a3f06bebd8f27/vaping-lung-disease.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc43822b5c77d2278/698a032e656a3f06bebd8f27/vaping-lung-disease.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Young man vaping by a wall","caption":"Young man vaping by a wall","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5681190/cdc-vaping-lung-illnesses/","name":"'I Wish We Had More Answers': Health Officials Still Don't Know Why 500 People Have Gotten Sick After Vaping"}}]}] ```