First eCig Lung Cancer Death

Today, my lovely daughter sent me a link to an article about the first official Lung Cancer death caused by eCigs (Electronic Cigarettes).

I use an eCig and she was concerned that I may be harming myself while under the impression eCigs were much safer than Tobacco Cigarettes.

This is the article:-

Frank Delio moments before he died of lung cancer. According to the boy’s mother, he’d been smoking E-cigarettes for the past 11 months and had never smoked before.
TEXAS — Frank Delio, a 17-year-old Texas teen boy, became the first person to die of lung cancer associated with the use of E-cigarette smoking in the U.S. yet on Wednesday afternoon.
While it isn’t yet clear what led to the sudden tragic death, the boy’s case has raised concerns amid the rising popularity of E-cigarettes, with many users seeing vaping as a safer alternative to smoking.
According to the boy’s mother, he’d been smoking E-cigarettes for the past 11 months and had never smoked before. According to medical experts, the boy checked in on January 13 and was diagnosed with lung cancer after a small tumor was found on his left lung. But what really worries experts is that barely a month and a half later, the boy is dead. His lungs were ‘filled with tumors’, ‘like if they were multiplying at an extremely faster rate than usual.’
Many experts have pointed out the dangers posed by E-cigarettes. Mostly the fact that E-cigarette vapor can contain cancer-causing formaldehyde at levels up to 15 times higher than regular cigarettes.
“Newer versions of E-cigarettes can operate at very high temperatures, and that heat dramatically amps up the creation of formaldehyde-containing compounds,” researcher David Peyton, a Portland State chemistry professor, said in the news release. “High-voltage usage can release enough formaldehyde-containing compounds to increase a person’s lifetime risk of cancer five to 15 times higher than the risk caused by long-term smoking.”
Meaning; this poses a risk to users who increase the voltage on their E-cigarette to increase the delivery of vaporized nicotine.High-voltage E-cigarette usage can release enough formaldehyde-containing compounds to increase a person’s lifetime risk of cancer five to 15 times higher than the risk caused by long-term smoking.
While the incident could be the first lung cancer death caused by E-cigarette use, a spike in cases of patients with the disease, mostly aged between 17-32 years old, has already been observed. The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) said that the number of lung cancer patients aged between 17 to 32 has increased from 1,543 last year to 4,638 as of Jan. 31 this year. Over half of these cases involved men younger than 25 years old.
http://timesnewz24.com/news/40-e-cigarette-kills-first-victim-after-teen-boy-dies-from-lung-cancer.html

It looks convincing doesn't it?

But there are several red flags and it didn't take too long to get to the bottom of this article.

Here is another picture of a distraught mother at the bed of a young Muslim boy who was attacked in a hospital in Homs, Syria as reported by a Chinese News Agency in 2011.... with a slightly different caption.

Note the Head Bandage….. For Lung Cancer?

Notice the: www.news.cn tag bottom right has been deliberately cropped from the first picture.

The original news item is at:-

 http://english.cntv.cn/20111230/116774_2.shtml  and was taken on 29 Dec 2011

There are no Obituary records for the death of a “Frank Delio” for the whole state of Texas.

The nearest I can find is for a David Francis Delio but he was 73 when he died.

In fact this particular Frank Delio does not seem to exist anywhere on the internet which is very unusual (but not impossible) for a 17 year old Texas boy.

The site reporting this tragic cancer death is a “Click-Bait” site that posts salacious and provocative posts to generate clicks. This gives them increased affiliate advertising revenue.

There are thousands of “Click-Bait” sites especially on Facebook who’s only purpose is to get you to click on them. They have no real content, no product and no service, they just need you to click so they can make more money from advertising other people’s products and services.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) about 5.4 million people die each year from Smoking related illnesses.  Even if the above story was not a fake, I’d rather be in the 1 death/year group than the 5.4 million deaths/year group. Call me reckless, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. It would seem that to-date, there have been 0 deaths that can be directly attributed to the correct use of eCigarette products.   

I’m still open to evidence though, but that evidence must come from a recognized authority or from well researched statistical evidence, Not from Click-Bait sites or from medical speculation or from people with a conflict of interests.