Vaping: The Cloud in Our Future
The numbers are only growing.
Oct 26, 2018
A man exhales an enormous cloud of vapor in his room during the day. Vape juices contain different flavorings and a highly addictive chemical known as nicotine.
Vaping is taking the world by one big, cloudy storm and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. In fact, the numbers are only growing.
It was reported in 2017 that more than two million middle school and high school students were users of e-cigarettes. In 2015, a study found that 35.5 percent of 12th graders had used a vaping device; in 2017, that number rose to 38.8 percent. Vaping is not the healthiest recreational activity you could be doing with your body. This is because of the negative health issues that have followed with its enormous impact on the population and here’s why.
Over nine million people in the United States vape regularly, 15 percent of those being teenagers. Teenagers have also been known to be more susceptible to nicotine addiction through the use of these devices. Sage Creek isn’t immune to this issue. On Sept. 26, during an interview on The Sage, assistant principal Jesse Schuveiller gave insight on how he wants, “to do a little bit of some education with our students and our staff from a wide range of things, whether it’s vaping, drugs and alcohol, and security.” Additionally, to combat the problem, Sage Creek now has a full-time security guard on campus, multiple smoke detectors within the bathrooms and other forms of regulations in order to monitor the issue.
The original purpose of manufacturing and using these vapes or e-cigarettes was to find an alternative to smoking cigarettes containing tobacco. This seemed to work due to the fact that the purchasing of vape devices has drastically increased over the years whilst the purchasing of cigarettes went significantly down. To elaborate the industries growth even further, according to Research and Markets, a study predicted that the vape industry would be worth 61.8 billion dollars by 2025 which would be a 20.8 percent increase of its worth in the present day. Going back to the consumers, the big problem with vaping is the juice that vapes hold and the nicotine in those juices; teens are becoming addicted.
There are reasons in support of why vaping is not worth trying to rip fat clouds with your friends. This includes mainly health issues and nicotine addiction. Ironically, a study performed by the Keck School of Medicine of USC was done to compare the relationship between smoking cigarettes and vaping suggested adolescents wanted to smoke cigarettes more due to indulging in vape culture. A lot of these teenagers have never smoked a cigarette nor have struggled with nicotine addiction in their life previously to using a vape. Nicotine has been known to affect brain development in different forms such as circuits that control your mood, impulses and learning. Furthermore, studies have also shown that teens have been more comfortable with trying other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines due to vaping previously.
Now, I know what you might be asking yourselves: Does vaping actually do anything good for humanity at all? Potentially. People have used vapes in order to quit smoking cigarettes and quit smoking in general, regardless, it isn’t an “FDA-approved quit aid.” The evidence, having to deal with whether it helps to quit smoking or not, is not exactly convincing enough as of right now. There were studies that showcased the use of vapes and their positive addition to society with the reduction of CO2 leaving our atmosphere with the implementation of vapes. That is definitely a good thing.
The vape manufacturer, JUUL, provides a starter kit that includes multiple pods with various flavors and the vape itself. On Sept. 28 the FDA raided the JUUL headquarters and seized multiple documents regarding the companies sales.
Although there are definitely more cons than pros, only recently has there been significant action taken with the purchasing of vapes and other related products. As of this past Sept. 12, the FDA continues to warn manufacturers that they have 60 days to find a way to prevent their products from being sold to minors. One of the manufacturers includes a hugely popular vape company known as JUUL. Recently, they have been receiving multiple lawsuits against them due to the products they sell regarding their vape juice pods and the very high amount of nicotine within them. Studies have shown that a single JUUL pod contains the same amount of nicotine as 20 cigarettes which is two packs. San Francisco has also taken part in banning the distribution of certain flavored tobacco products including vape products and juices.
In a nutshell, vaping isn’t the best thing to be doing health-wise no matter how cool it may look to your peers. For all you vape lords reading this, maybe take some things into consideration and try to take a break, your life may depend on it.
