Spanish Doctors Claim Electronic Cigarette Use Caused Pneumonia

Spanish doctors are claiming that a man treated for pneumonia last Thursday came down with the lung infection from excessive use of an electronic cigarette.

The man has been identified as a 50 year old who hails from the city of A Coruna in Spain. According to a report from the Agence France-Presse (AFP), the man was admitted to a A Coruna hospital for a separate illness, but was kept longer when he began exhibiting signs of exogenous lipoid pneumonia.

According to an AFP source who wished to remain anonymous, doctors charged with treating the man linked his illness to a "vegetable-based ingredient" in the solution of an electronic cigarette's replaceable cartridges.

Electronic cigarettes work by "vaporizing" liquid nicotine found in small cartridges. Users then inhale this vapor to get their nicotine fix, giving  users of the batter-run devices their self-titled name "vapers," as opposed to "smokers."

This is reportedly the second case of pneumonia being associated with e-cigarette use. The first case occurred in April of 2012, when a United States medical journal titled Chest made the observation that a 42-year-old woman's pneumonia was likely due to excessive electronic cigarette use. According to the journal, the woman had been admitted for examination after a seven month history of breathlessness, cough, and fevers. She was diagnosed with lipoid pneumonia, a rare chronic inflammatory reaction in the lungs that -- like walking pneumonia -- can persist for years if left untreated. Tests and a examination of the patient's medical history led researchers to conclude that the woman's pneumonia was likely caused by glycerin-based oils found in the nicotine delivery system of e-cigarettes. The strongest evidence behind this conclusion was based on the fact that the woman had begun 'vaping' nearly around the same time the pneumonia was theorized to have developed. Still, the researchers conceded, this could have simply been a coincidence.

Very little research has been conducting regarding the safety of e-cigarettes, but as things stand, most experts agree the greatest risk the devices pose is not pneumonia, but severe nicotine addiction, especially in minors.

The intial Agence France-Presse report was published on March 14.

The article was published in Chest on April, 2012.