Just as were getting a handle on teens and tobacco, up crops vaping.
Increasingly, teens are turning to e-cigarettes which combine high doses of nicotine with appealing flavors that are then heated to create a water vapor that is inhaled.
Popular brands such as Juul contain higher levels of nicotine than ordinary cigarettes. Nicotine is the substance in tobacco that not only makes it highly addictive but can also interrupt adolescent brain development. Also, inhaling the particles and chemicals associated with vaping products damages the lungs, much as with traditional cigarettes.
Among high school students nationally, vaping jumped 78 percent in 2018 from a year earlier. Middle school vaping rose 48 percent over the same period, according to data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
SO HOW did we get here?
After a decades-long drop in tobacco sales thanks to convincing arguments about its health hazards, including cardiovascular disease and cancers of the mouth and lungs, tobacco companies are making up lost ground by targeting a new generation of smokers. After all, the earlier you can develop addicts, the longer they stay with you.
Creative marketing by Altria, which also produces Marlboro cigarettes and is the largest stockholder in Juul, pitches vaping as a means to kick the nasty smoking habit.
But the campaigns are lies. According to the Food and Drug Administration, vaping is just as harmful as smoking cigarettes and could be worse if their nicotine levels are higher.
So whats the appeal?
Well, theyre new, and thats always cool.
They are cheaper than cigarettes. They taste better than cigarettes, coming in flavors such as apple pie and watermelon.
And they leave no tell-tale signs such as smoky hair and clothing.
SO WHATS NEXT?
