The Wall Street Journal - 23.08.2019

A6| Friday, August 23, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

U.S. NEWS

setts General Hospital.

The Wisconsin Department

of Health Services said Thurs-

day it had confirmed 16 cases

of severe lung disease and is

investigating 15 more whose

symptoms may be linked to e-

cigarette use.

The patients suffered

coughs, fevers, chills and short-

ness of breath, said Tom Haupt,

the department’s respiratory

disease epidemiologist. Some

lost up to 30 pounds the month

before they were hospitalized,

he said.

All reported that they were

vaping or “dabbing”—inhaling

marijuana oils, extracts or con-

centrates—in the weeks or

months before they became ill.

Thepatientsmayhavecon-

sumed THC, synthetic cannabi-

noids, nicotine or combinations

of these substances, the depart-

ment said.

The Kings County Depart-

ment of Public Health, in rural

central California, said it iden-

tified eight patients between

ages 18 and 60 who developed

lung illness after vaping prod-

ucts with CBD oils they had

bought from unlicensed ven-

dors.

The injured people bought

the CBD products “from what

they were calling pop-up

shops,” said Edward Hill, direc-

tor of the county’s public

health department.

The patients told the health

department they had bought

vaping products from those

sellers because they were

roughly half the price of those

sold elsewhere by licensed dis-

tributors, Mr. Hill said.

U.S. health authorities are

investigating the cases of 153

people, mostly teenagers and

young adults, who developed

severe lung illnesses after using

electronic cigarettes, raising

new questions about the health

risks of the devices.

The cases have occurred in

16 states over the past two

months, with many of the in-

jured rushing to emergency

rooms with difficulty breathing

and other symptoms. No deaths

have been reported, but some

patients were so ill they spent

days in intensive-care units on

mechanical ventilators, the

health authorities said.

What exactly is causing the

acute illnesses is unknown,

though health experts suspect

vaping plays a role. Vaping re-

fers to the use of an electronic

cigarette to inhale.

Many of the injured told

doctors or health authorities

they were vaping products con-

taining tetrahydrocannabinol,

or THC, a key ingredient in

marijuana, according to the

Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, which is working

with state health departments

to identify the cause. At least

some of the products were pur-

chased from unlicensed sellers.

“Investigators have not iden-

tified any specific product or

compound that is linked to all

cases,” the CDC said in a state-

ment. The Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said it is testing e-

cigarette products that the

patients used.

The health effects of vaping

any product, even a well-known

brand name, aren’t yet fully

known, tobacco researchers

said.

There is no evidence that

vaping is harmful to someone

who is trying to quit regular

cigarettes by switching to vap-

ing, said Nancy Rigotti, director

of the Tobacco Research and

Treatment Center at Massachu-

BYBETSYMCKAY

Questions Raised

About Vaping Use

In Lung Illnesses

Many said they used

products containing

THC, a marijuana

ingredient.

Monument, the city of Hamp-

ton and others.

Virginia’s Democratic Gov.

Ralph Northam, who was em-

broiled in controversy this

year when a racist picture

from his 1984 medical-school

yearbook was made public, is

set to speak Saturday.

Mr. Vann, 64 years old, said

recent ugly events over race,

from Charlottesville to the

mass shooting in El Paso by a

white man who decried what

he called a “Hispanic invasion

of Texas,” show “we as a coun-

try need to heal. We hope this

is a start.”

In August 1619, privateers

in a ship called the White Lion

arrived at Point Comfort, a

British colony at what is today

Fort Monroe in Virginia. The

White Lion and a second ship

had attacked a Portuguese

slave ship in the Gulf of Mex-

ico and captured Africans

likely taken from what is An-

gola today, according to the

Encyclopedia Virginia, a web-

site of Virginia history. The

“20. and odd Negroes”

brought ashore were ex-

changed for food, according to

a letter from a colony official.

The second ship arrived later,

bringing more captured Afri-

cans to sell. Details of what

happened to the captured peo-

ple aren’t known.

Historians and those cam-

paigning for African-American

rights have long considered

1619 as the start of what many

have called America’s “original

sin”: the enslavement of mil-

lions of people because they

were black.

“For many people, it mat-

terstohaveadate,aPlym-

outh Rock of sorts” to mark

the beginning of slavery, said

Michael Guasco, history chair

at Davidson College and the

author of a book about the

English colonies and slavery.

But he said the selling of

about 20 Africans at what was

then a remote, struggling out-

post was a relatively minor

chapter in a much larger story:

Spanish, Portuguese and Brit-

ish traders capturing millions

of Africans and shipping them

in bondage to the Americas,

an oppressive system that was

under way long before 1619, he

said.

Tidewater Virginia will hold

events this weekend to mark

the 400th anniversary of the

first arrival of captured Afri-

cans to this eastern coastal re-

gion, which many historians

consider the beginning of

black slavery in the British

colonies that later became the

United States.

The commemoration comes

as many people re-examine

the role of slavery’s legacy in

America’s troubled race rela-

tions, from the colonial era to

the present day.

“It’s time for the real story

to be told,” said Claude Vann

III, a retired U.S. Army lieuten-

ant colonel who is co-chair-

man of the Hampton, Va., 2019

Commemorative Commission,

which is helping to organize

the events. “Unfortunately, a

lot of African-American his-

tory has been buried.”

The events—which include

black heritage tours, panel dis-

cussions on African-American

history, speeches and a “day of

healing” festival including gos-

pel music—are sponsored by

Virginia, the National Park

Service’s Fort Monroe National

BYCAMERONMCWHIRTER

Virginia Marks Slavery’s Start

Grave markings in Tucker Family Cemetery, which is one of the oldest African-American burial sites in Hampton, Va.

RYAN M. KELLY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ThemajorityofthosewhoarrivedinU.S.portsduringtheslave

tradeenteredthroughSouthCarolinaandVirginia.

Peoplesoldonthetrans-Atlanticslavetrade

SouthCarolina

Virginia

OtherU.S.

PeoplesoldwithintheAmericas

Note: Data ranges from 1619 to 1860.

Source: Voyages Database by Emory University

0thousand 25 50 75 100 125 150

0thousand 25 50 75 100 125 150

SouthCarolina

Virginia

OtherU.S.

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