US asks to stop vaping while investigating diseases

Authorities have identified some 450 possible cases, including up to five deaths, in 33 states. The count includes deaths reported recently in California, Indiana and Minnesota.

No vaping device, liquid or ingredient has been linked to all diseases, officials said. Many of the sick – but not all – were people who said they had been vaping THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. Many are teenagers.

Health authorities have only been accounting for certain lung diseases in which people have been vaping in the last three months. Doctors say that such ailments resemble an inhalation injury, in which the body is apparently reacting to a caustic substance that someone inhaled. Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and vomiting.

All diseases have arisen this year, and the number increased rapidly in the last month as more states began investigations. A week ago, federal officials said the total was 215 possible cases in 25 states.

It is not clear if those diseases began before this year.

"We all wonder if this is new or just newly discovered," Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.

Dr. Jennifer Layden, an Illinois health official, said authorities do not know when those diseases began, but said there has been a marked increase since the beginning of the year.

Earlier deaths were reported in Illinois and Oregon.

Indiana officials said the person who died there was an adult, but they did not indicate when the death occurred or gave details. Health officials in Los Angeles said they are also investigating a death by vaping. And Minnesota health officials said the first death recorded in the state by vaping was from a 65-year-old person with a history of lung problems who had vaped illegal THC products and died in August.