Brady Bethell, Junior – Special to Headlight
When kids start growing up, their parents tend to talk with their children about how smoking, vaping, and the usage of any other drugs are bad for them. However, these chats must not be doing much because, since 2011, substances, primarily E-cigarettes, have been getting into the hands of young adults, teens, and even kids as young as 11 years old. Whether using these substances was on purpose or accidental, they are still just as dangerous.
In 2020, the FDA conducted a survey known as the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey. They discovered that 19.6% or 3 million high school students reported current usage of e-cigarettes. Of these current e-cigarette users, 39% reported using e-cigarettes for 20 out of the past 30 days or more, and 22.5% reported using them daily.
How are e-cigarettes getting into the hands of teens and young adults? The legal smoking age is 21, right? So how is it possible that kids as young as 11 are getting their hands on these substances? Well, the National Institutes of Health conducted a survey on 1,729 adolescents aged 15-17 who vaped at least once in the past 30 days. The most common origins were buying them from a store or online, or buying them from another person. The owners of these stores must be so careless about selling e-cigarettes to teenagers, and this has been happening for over 10 years. How has nobody taken any responsibility for these actions after such a long period of time?
Using vapes is said to be “safer” than using real cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually safe. It’s only considered safer because e-cigarettes do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, which are two of the most harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke. Vaping and smoking have very similar long-term side effects, including lung cancer, asthma, lung scarring, and organ damage. Also, using vapes will often lead to an increased risk of other cancers such as oral and bladder cancer. Some short-term side effects include coughing, a dry mouth and throat, mouth and throat irritation, headaches, and shortness of breath. Doesn’t sound too fun does it now?
In the end, anyone who says that vaping is safer than cigarettes is just trying to make themselves feel better about making unhealthy decisions with their life. Most of the time, it won’t matter because teens who start using e-cigarettes are four times more likely to start smoking real cigarettes only one year later.
Simply put, e-cigarettes should not be sold to teenagers.