Teen sues vaping company Juul after being left with lungs like 70-year-old

Teen sues vaping company Juul after being left with lungs like 70-year-old

Adam Hergenreder is suing Juul after he was hospitalised following vaping (Picture: Facebook) A tee..

Teenager suing Juul

Adam Hergenreder is suing Juul after he was hospitalised following vaping (Picture: Facebook)

A teenager who fell ill with lung disease after vaping is suing a leading e-cigarette maker, accusing them of deliberately marketing to young people.

Adam Hergenreder, 18, vaped for more than a year before he was hospitalised with nausea and problems breathing.

His doctors have told him that his lungs are now similar to those of a 70-year-old, he said.

It was scary to think about that. That little device did that to my lungs, he added.

Adam Hergenreder started vaping about two years ago at age 16. The mint and mango flavors were his favorites. Now Hergenreder, of Gurnee, is hospitalized and unable to breathe without a steady flow of oxygen through tubes affixed to his nostrils. Doctors have told the 18-year-old that images of his lungs from a chest X-ray look like those of a man in his 70s. His lungs may never be the same again, and vaping is likely to blame.

Adam Hergenreder was a promising wrestler before being struck down with lung disease (Picture: Facebook)

Adam is one of around 450 e-cigarette users who have fallen ill across 33 states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many of those to fall victim to the mysterious vaping-related lung illnesses are young people, officials have said.

There have been six recorded deaths so far and investigators have not yet identified the cause of the problems.

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President Donald Trump is talking about removing most of the vaping products from the market.

Adam, from Gurnee, Illinois, is suing Juul and his lawyers allege that their social media campaigns sent the message to young people that vaping was cool.

Adams lawyer Antonio Romanucci said: To put it mildly, Adam didnt stand a chance to avoid getting hooked on these toxic time-bombs.

So far, no specific devices or chemicals have been linked to the lung disease outbreak in the US.

But experts are focusing on black market products containing vitamin E oil, which can be dangerous if inhaled.

There is a large black market for THC-containing vape cartridges and users in online communities have been warned of the dangers of unregulated products.

The American Vaping Association has blamed the illnesses on illegal vape pens containing THC, which is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.

a juul pods dispenser

Electronic cigarettes and pods by Juul, the USs largest maker of vaping products (Picture: Getty)

Adam said he thought vaping was safe when he first started using e-cigarettes and added that one of his favourite flavours was mango.

He said he bought them at his local gas station, which is also named in the lawsuit, despite the fact he was underage and should not have been sold tobacco-based products.

He added: I first started vaping just to fit in, because everyone else was doing it.

It didnt taste like a cigarette. It tasted good.

He told his local paper, the Chicago Tribune, that last year he started buying homemade devices filled with THC off the street which he vaped alongside Juul.

Polly Hergenreder, right, and her son Adam, center attend a news conference where their attorney Antonio Romanucci, announced the filing of a civil lawsuit against e-cigarette maker Juul on Hergenreder's behalf Friday, Sept. 13, 2019, in Chicago. The lawsuit filed Friday in Lake County, Illinois, Circuit Court alleges Juul Labs, Inc., deliberately targeted young people through Instagram and other sites to suggest vaping can boost their social status. It also says Juul doesn't fully disclose their products contain dangerous chemicals. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Polly Hergenreder, right, and her son Adam, attend a news conference where their attorney Antonio Romanucci, announced the filing of a civil lawsuit against e-cigarette maker Juul (Picture: AP)

Experts say that one Juul pod delivers the same amount of nicotine to the body as a pack of cigarettes.

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Adams mum Polly said her son was using on average a pod a day.

She added: The doctors did tell us that if we did not bring Adam in when we brought him in, his lungs would have collapsed and he would have died.

Adam was given oxygen for six days in hospitals but it is unclear if his lungs will ever fully recover.

The teenager said: I was a varsity wrestler before this and I might not ever be able to wrestle because thats a very physical sport and my lungs might not be able to hold that exertion. Its sad.Read More – Source

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