Vaping: A National Epidemic

In September, Michigan became the first state to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, both online and in-store. Earlier this year, San Francisco passed a ban on the distribution and sale of e-cigarettes. Massachusetts and California are also pushing similar policies. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is likewise calling for emergency regulations to outlaw flavored e-cigarette sales. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after giving $1 billion to fight against tobacco, has since revealed a new $160 million project targeted against e-cigarettes. Even the Trump administration has announced its plans to remove all flavored e-cigs and nicotine pods from the market.

Vaping, the inhaling and exhaling of vapor produced by an e-cigarette, is a hot practice amongst teens. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, one in four 12th graders reported vaping in the 30 days prior to its survey. Immediate action against this highly addictive practice is a necessary step that gives hope to all the public health officials, parents, and educators who have felt powerless in keeping students away from e-cigs outside of school.

The appropriate extent of such bans is still being debated. The vaping industry and its supporters assert that the flow of e-cigarettes into the market is crucial. They argue that banning the sale of e-cigarettes would kill the $2.6 billion industry and wipe out 20,000 vape shops nationwide. They also emphasize how smokers can utilize e-cigarettes to slowly quit smoking. Without e-cigarettes, the jump to quitting would considerably lengthen, resulting in many resorting back to cigarettes.

Nonetheless, the American Lung Association has criticized Governor Cuomo for not taking the opportunity to instate a blanket ban on all e-cigarettes. Harold Wimmer, the association’s president, insists that keeping just one or two flavors in stores defeats the whole purpose; instead, people will just gravitate toward those flavors to satiate their nicotine addiction. Wimmer plans to solicit New York’s state legislature to issue a broader ban, an important step in combating vaping’s prevalence in schools throughout the state.

On the scientific front, the many chemicals involved in different e-cigarettes make it difficult to pinpoint a single culprit. Some patients vape T.H.C, the psychoactive component of marijuana, while others use substances high in vitamin E acetate. To discover the true culprit, a systematic approach is being advocated to test and ban all products that have any oil at all. Currently, we don’t know much about the effects of these chemical concoctions. All we know is that they’re linked to severe respiratory problems. And yet, an increasing number of teens are exposing themselves to them.

Vaping has become increasingly normalized for teenagers, and the nature of peer pressure accentuates this, increasing addiction. Addictions and habits at such a sensitive age are hard to conquer once established. Not only may teenagers grow up continuing to vape, but they may also seek “higher pleasures,” namely cigarettes and drugs, as their tolerance for e-cigarettes builds. It’s clear that vaping is a problem of national concern so it should be treated as such.