An American university student has issued a stark warning after she spent several days in hospital with a collapsed lung after vaping.
Grace Brassel, 23, revealed in a TikTok video she was recently hospitalised twice after suffering from a spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung).
Brassel said while her illness was due to a genetic condition, vaping exacerbated the situation and she's now sworn off e-cigarettes.
"Vaping didn't help. I am never going to vape again, ever in my life."
In the TikTok video, which now has over two million views, Brassel said she woke up coughing blood and was rushed to the emergency room where a tube was placed in her left lung.
But just one week later the student started coughing up blood again and was readmitted. She then had to undergo emergency surgery and spent the next four days in hospital.
Brassel said when she woke up from surgery she asked the nurse if she was dying because the pain was so bad.
"It was one of the most horrific pains I had ever experienced and the pain would not end."
Vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes, but it's still not safe. In April 2022, researchers from the Australian National University found there are significant health risks to vaping.
The report found vaping could lead to cardiovascular disease, cancer respiratory disease and a myriad of other health problems.
Auckland Grammar principal Tim O'Connor told AM New Zealand is in a vaping epidemic and vaping was far more of an issue than smoking at the school.
"I think what we're seeing is, actually, vaping driving students potentially towards tobacco, he told AM."
New Zealand's latest health survey suggests over the last three years vaping products used by teenagers between the ages of 15 to 17 had almost tripled.
