I have always been rather health conscious. In high school and middle school, I diligently avoided the dreaded “health class” nightmares of teenage pregnancy and substance abuse. I thought I was above peer pressure, and yet the moment I stepped foot on my college campus, two days before my 18th birthday, I used an electronic cigarette for the first time, and my friends and I vaped through an entire cartridge of mango e-juice.
For a long time, I thought I understood the harmful effects of cigarettes: From the tar buildup to the lung damage and yellowed teeth, I thought I knew all that there was to know about smoking. However, that night, I didn’t know anything about e-cigs or their sister, vape pens. Considering how the majority of traditional cigarette danger arises from its deleterious combustion, I figured that the vaporization of the fruity e-liquid to gas would circumvent this concern and that would mean vaping is safe. Hell, according to the e-cig packaging, the e-liquid didn’t even have any nicotine or tar! It was an easy decision to vape, and it’s a dangerous decision that many other teens and minors are currently making.
The reality is that vaping is actually quite complicated. On one side, vaping seems to be a slightly safer alternative for current smokers, as e-cigs release fewer deadly toxins than traditional combustible cigarettes. Furthermore, vaping with an e-cig involves mimicking many of the same physiological actions that are fundamental to smoking, and so e-cigs may be used as a possible smoking cessation aid.
On the other hand, at least until the FDA’s new regulatory powers are instituted come Aug. 8, there are currently no national laws restricting minors from purchasing and vaping with e-cigs. Altogether, this is exacerbated by the fact that there are no national institutes regulating e-cig components, and so even companies that claim to have no nicotine in their vaporizable e-liquids may still have nicotine and dangerous carcinogens. Even worse, other potent drugs like codeine and cocaine may be dissolved and vaporized.
Yes, e-cigs might be able to help current smokers quit smoking, but the opposite is also true. E-cigs are particularly deadly because they may serve as gateway drugs and may influence younger, more vulnerable audiences into smoking cigarettes or worse.
Indeed, within the last couple of years alone, current e-cigarette use among high school students has almost tripled, rising from about 660,000 in 2013 to 2 million in 2014. Among middle school students, current e-cigarette use has almost quadrupled, an increase from about 120,000 in 2013 to 450,000 in 2014.
Looking back now, my lack of e-cig knowledge — and the overall lack of information available regarding the effects of e-cigs — made them seem safer to use. Unfortunately, this dearth of information still exists across our country. While the FDA’s newly established regulatory powers are a step in the right direction, more must be done to analyze and inform the public about the health risks associated with vaping.
Max An is a senior physiology and neurobiology major. He can be reached at maxandbk@gmail.com.
