Apple Has Banned Vaping Apps From its iOS App Store

In response to the current panic surrounding vaping in the US, last week Apple removed all 181 vape-related apps from the iOS App Store.

Diane Caruana

November 19, 2019

While apple users who had already downloaded any vaping apps can keep using them undisturbed, the apps will not be available for download from now on. Sadly, this could prove counterproductive to the well-being of vapers, as some of the apps are useful and informative, providing news and/or practical features, such as allowing users to adjust the temperature and other settings on their devices.

Additionally, many anti-smoking experts will find this action unnecessary. While the measure was fueled by the panic which has been brought about by the outbreak of EVALI across the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently confirmed what many anti-smoking experts had been insisting on for the last few months: the outbreak is almost certainly not linked with vaping legal nicotine products.

EVALI linked to the consumption of illegal products

“Three of the patients whose lung samples revealed vitamin E acetate had reported using only nicotine-containing products, thus confirming that there is significant under-reporting which may explain why about 11% of the patients do not report vaping THC.”

In a post about the matter on his blog page, Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University’s School of Public Health, Dr. Michael Siegel, shared that in line with previous research, the evidence is pointing to the consumption of vitamin E acetate oil.

“They tested lung tissue samples from 29 case patients and all 29 (100%) were found to contain vitamin E acetate oil. This finding does represent a major breakthrough for four reasons:

The vitamin E acetate oil was detected in the actual lung tissue of the case patients.
The vitamin E acetate oil was detected in every single one of the lung tissue samples from these 29 case patients.
The samples came from 10 different states, confirming that the outbreak seems to have a common cause, rather than geographic variation.
Three of the patients whose lung samples revealed vitamin E acetate had reported using only nicotine-containing products, thus confirming that there is significant under-reporting which may explain why about 11% of the patients do not report vaping THC.”

Read Further: Ars Technica