Major threat of incurable 'popcorn lung' as 17-year-old falls seriously ill after vaping addiction

Vaping continues to be a huge issue for parents of young children across the world, with more and more teenagers falling ill after becoming addicted to the electronic cigarettes.

While they may have originally been brought in as an alternative to tobacco for those wanting to quit, it seems like you can't walk down the street these days without seeing a person, young or old, with a vape in their hand.

Unsurprisingly, inhaling flavoured smoke on a regular basis can have dire effects on our health, as one 17-year-old in America found out recently after being diagnosed with 'popcorn lung' after vaping for three years.

Popcorn lung, or bronchiolitis obliterans as it's actually called, is a rare chronic disease which occurs when airways in the lungs are scarred, leading to breathing difficulties, coughing, and wheezing.

A content creator has already revealed how he was able to breathe properly again and wasn't waking up with phlegm after giving the e-cigarettes up for just a few months, so it's clear for everyone to see the problems that smoking vapes can lead to.

Teenager cheerleading star Brianne Cullen was recently hospitalised and told she was suffering from the disease having secretly vaped since the age of 14 due to the stress of returning to school after the coronavirus pandemic.

She was fortunate enough to catch it early and her mum Christie Martin said 'she should be able to make a full recovery because we caught it so early' but is still worried as 'it can also cause problems like cancer in the future'.

Vaping can have terrible consequences (Getty Stock Photo)

Christie added: "Smoking takes years to show its effect and your lungs can heal from it, but popcorn lung is irreversible.

"Kids can walk straight into these smoking shops and buy them, it's a money grab. You can't smell it on clothes. I would walk into her room all the time and I never saw her vaping.

"It took a deadly diagnosis for her to stop."

The first cases of bronchiolitis obliterans were discovered in workers in a microwavable popcorn factory as people were breathing in diacetyl—the buttery-flavoured chemical which used to be found in things such as caramel, popcorn and dairy products. Which is obviously where the disease got its more commonly used name from.

An x-ray showing the damage done by 'popcorn lung' (CBS)

As a result, the chemical was removed from the food products.

However, some e-cigarettes still contain diacetyl, which the American Lung Association calls an 'urgent issue for public health' as they campaign for the dangerous chemical to be removed from e-cigarettes.

Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, from the Tobacco Treatment Clinic at Johns Hopkins University, has also stressed the seriousness of the condition, telling the Daily Mail back in 2022: "It's as brutal as disease as it sounds... if you develop it you have a 95 percent of dying within five years."

If that doesn't convince you to finally put down those vapes for good, I don't know what will.