A man in Washington state wants someone to be held accountable for what happened to him

As vaping fears continue to grip health officials worldwide, a man in Washington state wants someone to be held accountable for his lung illness.

Charles Wilcoxen, a Puyallup Tribal Police officer, said vaping products caused him to be hospitalized earlier this month with lipoid pneumonia. The suit, believed to be the first of its kind, names six companies: Canna Brand Solutions, Conscious Cannabis, Rainbow’s Aloft, LeafWerx, MFused and Jane’s Garden.

Wilcoxen said in the suit that the vaporizer he used was made by CCell, a Chinese company, and distributed by Canna Brand. The other companies named either made or sold him the vape cartridges.

In the U.S., eight people have already died from a lung disease believed to be connected to vaping and hundreds more have fallen ill, prompting intervention by the highest levels of government.

The most recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that most, but not all, cases of illness in the U.S. involved THC and not nicotine.

With the vast majority vaping-related illnesses seemingly connected to black market products, David Hammond, a Canadian public health professor at the University of Waterloo in southwestern Ontario, recommends only vaping dried cannabis and avoiding products from the black market. “For the most part, risks are reduced through good manufacturing. I expect that to remain true. But there may be a question mark at end of that statement now,” Hammond said.

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