The mum of a teenager whose vaping habit has led to a serious lifelong disease is warning of the dangers.
Brianne Cullen was just 14 when she started vaping in secret, hiding the habit from her mum as she struggled with anxiety when returning to school after the Coronavirus lockdown.
But the serious effects of her habit were revealed when Brianne, now 17 and from Nevada in the US, started struggling to breathe at cheerleading practice four months ago.
She phoned her mum in a panic, and after being taken to hospital she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as ‘popcorn lung’.
Mum Christie Martin described the scary phone call: ‘She called me all of a sudden and said she couldn’t catch her breath.
‘She kept saying “I can’t breathe”, it was the scariest thing.
‘I didn’t expect the news [the doctor] gave me, that it was popcorn lungs that’s permanent and children are dying from it.
‘They told me she should be able to make a full recovery because we caught it so early, but it can also cause problems like cancer in the future.
‘Smoking takes years to show its effect and your lungs can heal from it, but popcorn lung is irreversible.’
Brianne used a disposable vape daily for around three years – but while she’s now been given an inhaler and stopped the habit, there is very little doctors can do for her.
‘We don’t know the status of her lungs now,’ Christie told MailOnline. ‘We still don’t know if there will be long term effects.’
Christie is hoping her daughter’s case will discourage other teenagers from picking up vaping – and will raise awareness for parents too.
‘I would walk into her room all the time and I never saw her vaping. It took a deadly diagnosis for her to stop,’ she said.
‘I would urge parents to spread awareness. This is meant to be a cautionary tale to not let your kids vape no matter what.
‘They used to say cigarettes are healthy and now we know the truth, but we don’t know the truth about vapes.
‘Kids can walk straight into these smoking shops and buy them, it’s a money grab.’
What is popcorn lung?
In the year 2000, workers at a microwave popcorn factory started falling ill with a serious lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans.
This is because they were breathing in diacetyl, a chemical used to create the snack’s buttery flavour.
Once the link was discovered, popcorn manufacturers stopped using diacetyl in their products – and is the reason the disease is nicknamed ‘popcorn lung’.
But the chemical hasn’t been outright banned in the US, and Americans are being exposed to it through the flavour of their vape.
Bronchiolitis obliterans is when the tiny air sacs in the lungs called bronchioles are scarred, which causes the airways to get thicker and more narrow.
The serious lung disease causes coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath, similar to COPD, and requires lifelong treatment.
In severe cases, patients may end up needing a lung transplant.
However, diacetyl isn’t the only cause of bronchiolitis obliterans. Other chemicals, infections and autoimmune diseases can also cause the illness.
