Similar to inhaling tobacco smoke without the smoke, an electronic cigarette is a device that contains and emits nicotine-free vaporizers. Thus, it is mostly referred to a non-nicotine solution. Due to the fact that they are paraded as a solution to reduce the rates of smoking, e-cigs are widely marketed under several tags – vape pens or vaporizer cigarettes.
The increase in the demand for e-cigs is not unnoticed. Since they first appeared on the Chinese market, about 3.2% of grown-ups in the United States owned a brand in 2016. In fact, a whopping number of people who tried e-cigarettes were distributed among 2 million middle and high school students.
In the United States, most teenagers prefer vaping which makes it the most popular form of tobacco use within that group. Interestingly, the bulk of people who tried vaping were about 40% and none of them (aged 24 to 40) had tried smoking before vaping became a sensation. From research, vaping may truly be dangerous.
Unfortunately, a lot of vapers use vaping devices because they want to and not for the sole purpose of quitting their tobacco addiction. Subsequently, the enforcement of rules was done by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016. These rules were put in place to address the:
- Sales,
- Marketing, and
- Production of vaping products
Some facts on e-cigarettes are:
- E-cigarettes bear a striking resemblance with cigarettes except that you don’t have to burn tobacco
- People find them helpful as they can aid the reduction of smoking
- Research confirms e-cigarettes may have some negative effects on health
Risks
Even though e-cigarettes have a great tendency to tackle the problem of smoking, there is a possibility that vaping may be more handful than it’s contemporary. A few reasons are:
- Contrary to what marketing suggests, most e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is the source of addiction to cigarettes. While it may be hazardous during pregnancy, it also triggers negative changes in the brain of an adolescent.
- E-cigarettes are potentially harmful because the content aerosol contains toxicants, flavorings, and solvents.
- Popcorn lung is a common disease that occurs from the exposure of the lungs to diacetyl – on of the compositions of e-cigarettes.
- Inhalation and swallowing of e-cigarette liquid results in fatal poisoning
- There is a slim chance that e-cigarette users will quit smoking
- Tobacco usage is common with teens who use e-cigarette products
- Prolonged usage of nicotine increases the amount of pleasure a user derives from other drugs
- Vaping actually increases the chances that teenagers will embrace conventional cigarettes in the future
- Vaping also releases carcinogenic emissions; which means it does not eliminate second-hand smoking
Recent research on how nitrosamines in e-cigarettes damage the DNA was conducted on some animals. The report showed that there was a reduction in the ability of lungs to self-repair after a few exposures. More so, the mice in the experiment ended up with a damaged heart, bladder, and lungs. This shows that e-cigarettes, similar to cigarettes, contribute to bladder cancer, lung cancer, and heart diseases.
