Over the decades, smoking has been a rampant problem due to its health effects, like addiction, leading to a search for solutions. As a result, researchers have arguably considered electronic cigarettes a safer way of curbing smoking addiction and its effects. According to Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA, “Electronic cigarettes are devices that release doses of vaporized nicotine, or non-nicotine solutions that users inhale (3).” Vaping, intended as an offramp from cigarettes, has instead hooked a generation of children and sent hundreds of people to the hospital (Williams 1). While vaping appears to be the solution to traditional smoking, its health effects, such as addiction, lung damage, and brain development, are fatal among the youth.
Although manufacturers invented e-cigarettes as a way of eliminating cigarette smoking among adults, youths have also been trapped in its effects, like addiction, exposing them to serious health problems. Research has proved that a single vape pod is equivalent to smoking a packet of cigarettes, thus exposing the vaper to high contents of nicotine at once, which leads to dependency(Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA 3). Furthermore, the availability of more than 460 different e-cigarette brands, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has increased the number of vapers as many choose their favourite brand, leading to addiction. Consequently, various flavours in e-cigarettes, such as mint, candy, fruit, or chocolate, have increased the number of users, also increasing addiction cases (Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA 4). The report indicates that vaping looks more attractive as the number of U.S. high school students using e-cigarettes rose 78% between 2017 to 2018 to 3.08 million, a rise of 20.8%, while that of middle school students rose 48.0% to 570,000, a rise of 4.9% further proving dependency (Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA 4). Therefore, Vaping causes addiction instead of helping reduce cigarette smoking.
E-cigarettes have high contents of nicotine, which causes lung damage among the youth. Vaping the harmful ingredients of e-cigarettes, such as formaldehyde and acrolein, causes irreversible lung damage (Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA 3). Williams reports that “skyrocketing usage rates among young people, vaping flavoured liquid nicotine, coupled with an alarming, nationwide outbreak of mysterious illnesses including 12 deaths and more than 800 confirmed or probable cases of vaping-linked lung injury as of late September (Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA 2).” As a result of cancer cases increase, officials described youth e-cigarette use as an “epidemic” and the federal government looking to ban almost all flavoured e-cigarette products to curbing risks of cancer (Williams 2). Consequently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating sales, marketing, and production of these products, especially for youth, to minimize cancer and related problems (Williams 3). Therefore, e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which causes lung cancer and other illnesses.
Studies have also linked Vaping with brain development risks among kids who use e-cigarettes. Governmental and non-governmental health organizations fear that e-cigarettes might encourage never-smoking adolescents to begin smoking and subject young people’s developing brains to risks posed by exposure to nicotine (Warner and Mendez 2). “Ninety per cent of people begin smoking before the age of 18, before the legal age, and 99 per cent start before the age of 25” (Warner and Mendez 5). All these people start vaping and smoking before their brains stop developing, and that is also when they are more likely to become addicted to that substance (Warner and Mendez 5). The failure of communities to have rules regulating smoking and vaping around the parks has accelerated the use of e-cigarettes among minors, exposing their brains to risks (Warner and Mendez 5). On the other hand, introducing rules governing e-cigarettes and vaping in parks and recreation areas has brought positive responses from parents, seeing 87% of survey respondents going smoke-free and vape-free in their parks (Warner and Mendez 8). Therefore, Governments reinforcing laws and regulations to curb e-cigarettes and vaping might, in a significant percentage, reduce cases of vaping, thus saving the lives of young people.
In conclusion, vaping and e-cigarettes are harmful and expose the youth to addictions and health-related problems like lung cancer and affected brain development. Extreme amounts of nicotine in vape pods escalate addictions among young vapers. Consequently, dependency leads to lung cancer due to the accumulation of excessive amounts of nicotine. Moreover, vaping leads to brain development complications as the consumption of nicotine interferes with the development process among young vapers. Therefore, vaping is an epidemic that addicts the youth and increases cases of smoking, resulting in dependency and diseases like lung cancer and brain development process.
Works Cited
Warner, Kenneth E., and David Mendez. “E-cigarettes: Comparing the Possible Risks of Increasing Smoking Initiation With the Potential Benefits of Increasing Smoking Cessation.” Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 21, no. 1, Oxford UP (OUP), Mar. 2018, pp. 41–47. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/nty062.
Vaping: A Youth Epidemic | Feature | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA. www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2019/june/the-youth-vaping- epidemic/#:~:text=Common%20nicknames%20for%20these%20products,resembles %20a%20USB%20flash%20drive.
Williams, Joseph P. “Vaping: From ‘Safer Than Cigarettes’ to Public Health Crisis.” U.S. News & World Report, 30 Sept. 2019, www.usnews.com/news/healthiest- communities/articles/2019-09-30/vaping-from-safer-than-cigarettes-to-public-health-
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