What do you think about vaping? Now, how about vaping among teens? First, let's talk about what vaping is. In short, vaping is the action or practice of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device. However, the process is much more complicated than just inhaling and exhaling. Vapes or electronic cigarettes, such as e-cigarettes, e-hookah, pens, vapes, or e-cigars, work by heating a nicotine or non-nicotine solution with an electric coil that is powered by a battery. Smoke-looking vapors can be seen when the solution is heated up imitating if one is smoking a cigarette or even a cigar. This way of delivering nicotine or non-nicotine, flavored or unflavored smoke using any choice of electronic device is called vaping. Vaping devices come in different shapes, sizes, and intent. Such as some vaping devices only imitates smoke and have no nicotine whereas, some devices have a high dose of nicotine. Vaping consists of benefits like appealing design, control over nicotine intake, much more flavor choice over cigarettes, and alternative way vaping has side effects too such as nicotine dependence of teens, serious health issues (including death), and a gateway for new drugs.
Vaping Among Teens
Vaping is becoming more popular among teens attending high school and middle school because as stated In the article 'Teen study reveals how schools influence e-cigarette use, outlines prevention strategies”. 'Youth attending schools with high rates of vaping are more likely to believe that e-cigarettes are harm-free and less addictive than traditional cigarettes, regardless of if they smoke or not,'() they think that vaping is less harmful. Teens also fall victim to social culture and social media ad campaigns, which have been targeting teens and sending messages as if they would look cooler if they were to possess or involve themselves in vaping activities. As in the article (Teen study reveals how schools influence e-cigarette use, outlines prevention strategies). The author stated that “With the introduction of new devices and flavors, however, adolescents appear to have relied on local resources within their schools to begin vaping.' E-cigarettes, for example, Juul, are sleek in shape and come in different colors which imitate the look of a flash drive in other words designed and targeted for teens and are easily concealable. So, it is becoming more common for students to vape in the classroom, and bathroom stalls. And even the charging process is designed for it to look like a flash drive connected to a laptop or computer. The vast variety of flavors attracts the students to choose which flavor they want to try and sometimes their friends recommend them to try different flavors.
There are some benefits of vaping, for example, it helps the user to reduce or quit smoking. According to Peter Hajek, “Electronic cigarettes (EC) are a consumer product appealing to smokers looking for a safer way to obtain what they want from their cigarettes. From what we know about EC ingredients, toxicology, and the chemical and physical processes involved, they can be expected, outside pregnancy, to be at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes.” (Electronic cigarettes have the potential for huge public health benefits.)As stated by the author if you have been smoking for some time and you are looking for an alternative or trying to quit, you can switch to vaping as it’s less harmful and you can control the amount of nicotine intake. Another reason why teens are more likely to vape instead of smoking cigarettes is that it is hard to tell if someone was vaping, with no odor or bad smell. Another benefit of vaping is fewer numbers of wildfires, as burning cigarette butt is to be blamed for a lot of wildfires causing deaths and injuries.
Teens start using e-cigarettes and get addicted to them to the point that all they can think of is vaping. Which can seriously affect their studies and their career. Students who start vaping can’t focus on their studies and waste their time on vaping instead of doing homework. They start skipping their classes and become tardy. They fall behind in the class and their grades start declining and eventually can fail the class. Their whole career ends before even launching, all just because they picked up a bad habit when they were in high school or middle school.
Even though people think about the benefits of vaping, there are still some side effects. Recent studies show that an e-cigarette pod is equivalent to one full pack of cigarettes. Vaping can cause dehydration in the mouth and throat. The user tends to have a dry mouth or sore throat which can happen when the user used a high amount of propylene glycol. Coughing can be caused when a person used vaping in the wrong way, for example using high nicotine in their dose. High nicotine also causes the mouth and nose skin to dry up which can leave the person with nose bleeding. Vaping also causes to have chest pain, diarrhea, and fever. The nicotine contained in e-cigarettes is highly dangerous. According to the author johnson Gail, “Vaping can affect brain development, memory, and concentration”.() There are some substances that are found in these e-cigarettes that have a direct link to the risk of cancer. According to Heidi Splete “The vaping devices are manufactured to deliver drugs into the lungs”()as stated by the author vaping causes some serious problems to our lungs. Vaping can cause contact injuries and the risk of burns and explosions because e-cigarettes contain batteries that can overheat. Nicotine also can cause some serious injuries to our cardiovascular system and respiratory system. The liquid contained in e-cigarettes leads to unintentional poisoning in children.
Nicotine is a gateway drug that has been linked to many other problematic habits Mr. Jackson mentioned, “binge drinking, having multiple sexual partners in a short period, and using other substances such as cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin or non-prescribed opioids.” ('Teen e-cigarette use: A public health crisis.')As stated by the author if you increase your nicotine intake dosage in your e-cigarette, it can cause many other problems, for example, people can lose control and start doing some other stuff that would never have happened if they never started vaping in the early stage. People just thought that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking, just another cool thing, but it can become more dangerous when they started it. It is just like a never-ending sinkhole, where one can only get sunk in.
People think vaping is not as harmful as smoking because they don't have enough evidence linking it directly to any serious illness or death because the history of electronic smoking devices dates back only a few years. so, it might be too early to weigh the pros and cons of vaping. Just like cigarettes, when they first started selling cigarettes commercially, there hadn't been sufficient research done on the long-term effects of the extended use of tobacco. But finally, when researchers and scientists had enough data to blame cigarettes for all the different types of lung diseases and other health issues, cigarettes had already been in the veins of the communities and the whole wide world. The same can be assumed for electronic smoking devices, there is not enough data yet, but if we keep on making the excuse of not having enough data and turn a blindside on vaping when we do open our eyes, it might be too late for anyone to save humanity from the epidemic of vaping. Whatever limited research has been done and also in my perspective, vaping is not meant for developing the minds of teens. And it's not meant for any school. So, we have to do more studies on vaping and give more awareness to people who are vaping.
Work Cited
Hajek, Peter. 'Electronic cigarettes have the potential for huge public health benefits.' BMC Medicine, vol. 12, no. 1, 2014. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A539605242/HRCA?u=nhmccd_main&sid=HRCA&xid=2efc1a15. Accessed 24 Oct. 2019.
Jackson, Peter R. 'Teen e-cigarette use: A public health crisis.' Pediatric News, May 2019, p. 14. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A588472624/HRCA?u=nhmccd_main&sid=HRCA&xid=718430e1. Accessed 24 Oct. 2019.
Johnson, Gail. “THE RISE OF VAPING: There’s No Smoke, but the Trend Is on Fire.” Alive: Canada’s Natural Health & Wellness Magazine, no. 442, Aug. 2019, pp. 42–47. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid&custid=s1088435&db=rzh&AN=137994202&site=ehost-live.
Splete, Heidi. 'Vaping soars among American teens in 2018 survey.' Pediatric News, Jan. 2019, p. 2. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A572062348/HRCA?u=nhmccd_main&sid=HRCA&xid=d31fada6. Accessed 24 Oct. 2019.
'Teen study reveals how schools influence e-cigarette use, outlines prevention
strategies.' Marketing Weekly News, 19 Oct. 2019, p. 230. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A602568892/HRCA?u=nhmccd_main&sid=HRCA&xid=cef472e8. Accessed 24 Oct. 2019.