By Victoria Grijalva
Vaping products were created to help adult smokers quit tobacco, but studies now show adults aren’t the only ones using e-cigarettes, and concerns are escalating about widespread vaping among young people and the dangers that follow. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in 2018 on tobacco use and vaping among middle and high school students, which showed that 19 percent of girls and 23 percent of boys are actively vaping. Pima County officials recently said vaping among youth has reached an “alarming” level. The 2018 Arizona Youth Survey reported that 48 percent of Pima County youth have tried an e-cigarette or a vape at least once in their lives. According to Know the Risks: e-cigarettes and young people, an education program in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, the brain is still developing in teenagers and young adults, up until age 26. | Victoria Grijalva |
Using e-cigarettes and vaping increases “the possibility of addiction and long-term harm to the brain development and respiratory health,” according to the Know the Risks webpage.
The surgeon general’s program also reports, “Even breathing e-cigarette aerosol that someone else has exhaled poses potential risks.”
E-cigarettes and vapes affect the part of the brain that controls attention, learning, mood and impulse control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vapes often come in flavors that appeal to teens (mint, cherry), and teenagers are more likely to get addicted, making them four times more likely to smoke tobacco.
Often teens are caught up in the fad and do not pay attention to reports that tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping expose users to chemicals and carcinogenic compounds and can cause lung damage. “Popcorn lung,” one such danger, is a condition that damages the most narrow passageways in the lungs and causes inflammation.
Teens also are unaware or uninterested that vaping can weaken a person’s immune system, damage blood vessels, and increase heart rate and blood pressure. In April the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced vaping can cause seizures.
The surgeon general’s program also reports, “Even breathing e-cigarette aerosol that someone else has exhaled poses potential risks.”
E-cigarettes and vapes affect the part of the brain that controls attention, learning, mood and impulse control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vapes often come in flavors that appeal to teens (mint, cherry), and teenagers are more likely to get addicted, making them four times more likely to smoke tobacco.
Often teens are caught up in the fad and do not pay attention to reports that tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping expose users to chemicals and carcinogenic compounds and can cause lung damage. “Popcorn lung,” one such danger, is a condition that damages the most narrow passageways in the lungs and causes inflammation.
Teens also are unaware or uninterested that vaping can weaken a person’s immune system, damage blood vessels, and increase heart rate and blood pressure. In April the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced vaping can cause seizures.
Vaping is an act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by a heated nicotine liquid of an electronic cigarette, similar to smoking an actual cigarette without the tobacco and paper.
While some tobacco companies have said vaping is safer than smoking actual cigarettes, it was reported recently that smoking just one of the popular e-cigarettes called JUUL can equal the effects of up to 20 cigarettes.
“The big tobacco companies are making big money,” said Kaye Godbey, project coordinator at UA Campus Health’s health promotion and preventive services division. The mentally ill and young people are targeted and hurt the most, she said.
Godbey and campus health try to prevent use and addiction to vaping by posting on social media. One message they are pushing right now is the fact that “vaping” isn’t actually utilizing water vapor, as the name suggests, but aerosol. Also, the chemicals can be more dangerous than nicotine, especially in the flavoring.
Vapes and e-cigarettes were created to replace actual smoking. They have the same purpose to inhale nicotine but in a safer way. Actual cigarettes’ purpose was to burn nicotine leaves and give a smoker a kick.
The liquid produced in vapes is mostly propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. A vape product may look like a regular cigarette but it has no tobacco, no paper, no filter, and it does not burn. Vaping has helped many smokers quit smoking actual cigarettes, then moving to mostly vaping or quitting all together.
Anthony Alston, a 19-year-old vaper from Tucson, shared his story about how he started vaping, “I started vaping a little over a year ago. The nicotine helps me for the stress of school and it keeps my brain focused on one thing.”
While reports say teenagers and young adults still smoke actual cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping have caught on because they are easier to hide from parents, adults, or in schools or public places with non-smoking designations.
Local governments have followed national organizations in sounding the alarm about youth vaping, and several campaigns have been created to prevent vaping among teens and young adults. One local example is “The REAL DEAL on Vaping,” a campaign launched by Pima County in March aimed at educating teens, parents, guardians, educators and health care providers about vaping’s dangers.
REAL DEAL program coordinator Lee Itule Klasen said they are beginning an all-out campaign to reach teens with solid information about e-cigarettes and vaping.
“This campaign is supposed to give a motivating message to our teens and support them,” Itule Klasen said.
The old methods of posters in the schools have given way to reaching students on social media with images and links to valuable information. Other efforts in the campaign include toolkits for parents and a TV commercial that will air on Fox. The coordinators also hope the campaign also reaches primary physicians so they can educate their patients about vaping
While some tobacco companies have said vaping is safer than smoking actual cigarettes, it was reported recently that smoking just one of the popular e-cigarettes called JUUL can equal the effects of up to 20 cigarettes.
“The big tobacco companies are making big money,” said Kaye Godbey, project coordinator at UA Campus Health’s health promotion and preventive services division. The mentally ill and young people are targeted and hurt the most, she said.
Godbey and campus health try to prevent use and addiction to vaping by posting on social media. One message they are pushing right now is the fact that “vaping” isn’t actually utilizing water vapor, as the name suggests, but aerosol. Also, the chemicals can be more dangerous than nicotine, especially in the flavoring.
Vapes and e-cigarettes were created to replace actual smoking. They have the same purpose to inhale nicotine but in a safer way. Actual cigarettes’ purpose was to burn nicotine leaves and give a smoker a kick.
The liquid produced in vapes is mostly propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. A vape product may look like a regular cigarette but it has no tobacco, no paper, no filter, and it does not burn. Vaping has helped many smokers quit smoking actual cigarettes, then moving to mostly vaping or quitting all together.
Anthony Alston, a 19-year-old vaper from Tucson, shared his story about how he started vaping, “I started vaping a little over a year ago. The nicotine helps me for the stress of school and it keeps my brain focused on one thing.”
While reports say teenagers and young adults still smoke actual cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping have caught on because they are easier to hide from parents, adults, or in schools or public places with non-smoking designations.
Local governments have followed national organizations in sounding the alarm about youth vaping, and several campaigns have been created to prevent vaping among teens and young adults. One local example is “The REAL DEAL on Vaping,” a campaign launched by Pima County in March aimed at educating teens, parents, guardians, educators and health care providers about vaping’s dangers.
REAL DEAL program coordinator Lee Itule Klasen said they are beginning an all-out campaign to reach teens with solid information about e-cigarettes and vaping.
“This campaign is supposed to give a motivating message to our teens and support them,” Itule Klasen said.
The old methods of posters in the schools have given way to reaching students on social media with images and links to valuable information. Other efforts in the campaign include toolkits for parents and a TV commercial that will air on Fox. The coordinators also hope the campaign also reaches primary physicians so they can educate their patients about vaping