--- title: These Brands May Be to Blame for Vaping-Related Illnesses description: The CDC released information about specific THC vaping products used by EVALI patients before they got sick. canonical: https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-12-06T20:00:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T20:24:23.000Z article:section: Health og:title: These Brands May Be to Blame for Vaping-Related Illnesses og:description: According to a CDC report og:url: https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7708461fdd6e8569/698a070d01168200d397ea2b/vaping-THC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2280 og:image:height: 1283 og:image:alt: Man smokes an electronic cigarette og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Brands May Be to Blame for Vaping-Related Illnesses twitter:description: According to a CDC report twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7708461fdd6e8569/698a070d01168200d397ea2b/vaping-THC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Brands May Be to Blame for Vaping-Related Illnesses, According to CDC Report > Sponsored content. 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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. ## Video: Trump Holds Heated Vaping Meeting [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Holds Heated Vaping Meeting](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rcHbP9pj.m3u8) (0:29)  _Published 2019-11-22. Health advocates are encouraging US President Donald Trump to move forward with a federal ban on thousands of flavors used in e-cigarettes._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:24 PM UTCPublished: Dec 6, 2019 8:00 PM UTC  Man smokes an electronic cigarette in town . Man smokes an electronic cigarette in town . Getty Images—pascal kiszon  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:24 PM UTCPublished: Dec 6, 2019 8:00 PM UTC Dank Vapes seem to be associated with many cases of e-cigarette and vaping-product associated [lung injury](https://time.com/5692387/vaping-related-death-toll/) (EVALI) popping up across the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday. The CDC has already pointed to products [containing the marijuana compound THC](https://time.com/5688229/cdc-thc-vaping-deaths/)—particularly those tainted by the [additive vitamin E acetate](https://time.com/5722724/vaping-illness-chemical-vitamin-e/)—as a likely cause of many of the nearly 2,300 EVALI cases and 48 deaths reported during the outbreak. Now, for the first time, the agency has released national data about specific brands used by individuals before they got sick. More than half the 482 hospitalized EVALI patients who provided specific product information to the CDC reported using products from Dank Vapes, which the CDC calls “a class of largely counterfeit THC-containing products of unknown origin.” An [_Inverse_ investigation](https://www.inverse.com/article/58581-dank-vapes) found that Dank Vapes is not a legitimate company, but rather a label often affixed to counterfeit products produced by unknown makers. “They act like a cannabis company, but they actually don’t exist. They’re in the packaging industry,” a cannabis industry entrepreneur told _Inverse._ The CDC’s investigation points to the nebulous network’s reach. Patients in every region said they had used Dank Vapes products, though they were used a bit more often in the Midwest, Northeast and South than the West. The CDC has [already reported evidence](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6839e2.htm?s%5Fcid=mm6839e2%5Fw) that Dank Vapes products were associated with illnesses in Illinois and Wisconsin. Other vaping brands used by patients in the CDC’s report include TKO, Rove, Smart Cart, Kingpen and Cookie, many of which were used by more people in the West than anywhere else. In a statement provided to TIME, Kingpen manufacturer Loudpack drew a distinction between reputably made Kingpen products, which are only available at California dispensaries, and bootleg products posing as Kingpen’s. “The Kingpen products in the CDC report are dangerous because they are illegal. They are not regulated or tested—nor are they the award-winning, authentic products manufactured by Loudpack,” the statement reads. “Legal, regulated, licensed and tested cannabis companies must stop being blamed for the actions by illegal entities, who we work day and night to prevent from putting more patients and consumers in harm’s way.” Though the data helps advance the CDC’s investigation, there are still many unanswered questions. The nearly 500 patients included in the latest report said they had used 152 different products in all, making it difficult to nail down which ones are the possible sources of illnesses—especially since some patients use e-cigarettes from multiple brands. It’s also not totally clear whether THC-containing products are to blame for all cases of EVALI. Eighty percent of the 1,782 hospitalized EVALI patients for whom the CDC has information about product use said they had vaped THC in the three months before symptoms (35% exclusively), but 54% also said they had used nicotine (13% exclusively). Smaller numbers also reported additionally or exclusively using products containing [CBD](https://time.com/5601977/united-states-government-cbd/), a non-psychoactive marijuana compound. There was some good news in the report, however. The CDC says the number of EVALI diagnoses has declined each week since mid-September, suggesting that the outbreak may be approaching its end. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/"},"headline":"These Brands May Be to Blame for Vaping-Related Illnesses, According to CDC Report","datePublished":"2019-12-06T20:00:21.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T20:24:23.000Z","description":"The CDC released information about specific THC vaping products used by EVALI patients before they got sick.","url":"https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/","keywords":["Public Health","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7708461fdd6e8569/698a070d01168200d397ea2b/vaping-THC.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/blt7708461fdd6e8569/698a070d01168200d397ea2b/vaping-THC.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Man smokes an electronic cigarette","caption":"Man smokes an electronic cigarette","creditText":"Getty Images—pascal kiszon","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/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/","name":"These Brands May Be to Blame for Vaping-Related Illnesses, According to CDC Report"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Holds Heated Vaping Meeting","description":"Health advocates are encouraging US President Donald Trump to move forward with a federal ban on thousands of flavors used in e-cigarettes.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rcHbP9pj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-11-22T22:52:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rcHbP9pj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/","duration":"PT29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5745483/vaping-illness-brands/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```