• Melissa M Arons, Stephen R Barnes, Rita Cheng, Kelly Whittle, Christopher Elsholz, David Bui, Stephen Gilley, Alejandra Maldonado, Nathan LaCross, Kylie Sage, Nathaniel Lewis, Keegan McCaffrey, Jordan Green, Janae Duncan, and Angela C Dunn.
• Epidemic Intelligence Service, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Georgia.
• Int. J. Drug Policy. 2021 Feb 1; 88: 103026.

BackgroundIn the summer of 2019, e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) was detected in the United States. Multiple agencies reported illicit tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, products containing vitamin E acetate (VEA) as a substance of concern.MethodsAs an expansion of the Utah Department of Health's response to EVALI, the Utah Public Health Laboratory and the Utah Department of Public Safety screened 170 products from 96 seizures between October 2018 and January 2020. Using Pearson's correlation coefficient, we analyzed the temporal correlation of national, and Utah specific case counts, and the percentage of seizures indicating VEA by month.ResultsThe findings indicate strong and significant correlations between seizures indicating VEA and both the national (r = 0.70, p = 0.002) and Utah specific (r = 0.78, p < 0.001) case counts.ConclusionThese findings underscore that VEA should not be added to e-cigarettes, or vaping, products and the importance of collaboration with law enforcement when responding to outbreaks associated with illicit substances.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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