What was once considered a healthy alternative to smoking, has now been called an epidemic.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came out saying underage vaping has become an epidemic.
E-cigarettes are a way for adult smokers to transition from consuming tobacco products to strictly nicotine products.
In 2017, Scott Gottlieb, FDA Commissioner, said e-cigarettes were a potential tool to help adult smokers get the same craving as a smoke, but without the tobacco.
Yet teenagers who have never smoked a cigarette are now becoming hooked on nicotine.
Gottlieb didn’t realize it would become a way of life for youth but says they are driven because of the flavored products.
These flavored products contain nicotine which isn’t a safe substance especially for children whose brains are still developing, says the FDA.
According to the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology article, Harmful Effects of Nicotine, on Jan. 2015, “Nicotine adversely affects the heart, reproductive system, lung, and kidney.”
One place in the body the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology failed to mention is the harmful effects on the brain.
According to The Journal of Physiology article, Nicotine and the Adolescent Brain, on Aug 15, 2015, “Nicotine exposure increasingly occurring as a result of e-cigarette use, may induce epigenetic changes that sensitize the brain to other drugs and prime it for future substance abuse.
Tyler Bolen, casual vaper, agrees with the FDA saying underage vaping is an epidemic but believes it will also have an adverse effect on the audience.
“I see how it blew up so quickly with people from smokers to kids vaping . I believe it’s unhealthy for kids as their brains are still developing. But the negative side of calling it an epidemic is that vaping helped smokers go to a more healthier solution.”
Bolen vapes for the social aspect of it, not for the nicotine.
He will vape at parties and when he is around friends that vape so he would be able to stop vaping whenever he wants.
But for some, vaping is an addiction and is hard to quit.
Bolen believes there should be some sort of regulation put into place where if a cop sees an underage vaper, they would confront them and tell the vaper about the consequences of vaping.
The FDA is looking to make a regulation that will keep vapes away from young people.
