To Vape or Not to Vape

By: Breonna Lewis

In recent news the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has cracked down of the vapor industry harshly due to the minor children getting their hands on e-cigarettes.

According to CNN, high school students smoking e-cigarettes jumped nearly 80 percent, thus causing the FDA to push for new regulations for all flavored nicotine products. Though e-cigarettes have not been documented as a smokers aid to stop smoking it has been proven to help. 

E-cigarettes are electronic cigarettes better known as “vapes.” Vaping consumers who have smoked cigarettes in the past are known to cause health problems. Vapes allows consumers to stop smoking cigarettes that have addictive chemicals. Vapes come in varies sizes and styles to fit the consumer’s needs.

Vapes made their impact on the world in 2005-2006 and since has evolved. The nicotine liquid comes in various strengthens. The most important is zero nicotine, so that former smokers are no longer addicted to the chemical.

The media backlash with vapes and the flavored nicotine products caused by the excessive usage of minors. Customers have stated vaping helped them stop smoking cigarettes.

“I have been smoking for over 20 years, tried everything out there but nothing helped until I started vaping,” one customer stated.

This customer was desperate to try something after being diagnosed stage one lung cancer.

“Now that I have finished my chemo and beat the cancer, I can not even take the smell of cigarette smoke. It makes me sick.”

Juul is a very popular brand of e-cigarettes. Juul is small, portable, low maintenance but has caused the most backlash in the media. Though consumers report they like the discretion of the Juul, they do agree that they should not be accessible to children.

Corporate sources who do not wish to be identified have stated that they are in full corporation with the FDA plans to accommodate this unfortunate mishap.

Company sources state that here soon consumers will not be allowed to purchase fruit-flavored pods from retail stores, only online. Sources also state that there will be further verification of age (must be 21)  to purchase such pod flavors online.

If the FDA does decide to ban all flavored nicotine products, this could result in consumers going back to cigarettes and health problems.

“I vape the fruit-flavored liquid because it does not remind of a cigarette,” a customer stated.

The menthol and tobacco flavor liquid resembled too much of a cigarette and they would be tempted to go back to smoking cigarettes.    

One benefits of  vaping is that though some of the liquid does contain nicotine, it does not have the toxic chemicals, tobacco and other additive chemicals, like a regular cigarette. These same ingredients have been proven to cause lung cancer, lung problems and even heart disease.

Vaping also allows consumers to get off of nicotine overall with zero nicotine liquids. This allows consumers to cut down on their nicotine strengths while simultaneously fulfilling the illusion of smoking a cigarette. This benefit also helps smoker alleviate nicotine withdrawals and the resulting side effects. 

Vaping is also inexpensive. In Georgia, the average cost of a pack of cigarettes is $6.39. According to Motley Fool, consumers will spend on average $2,332 in one year on cigarettes. 

Vape consumers also report they do not have a lingering cigarette odor in their hair, nails, clothes, home, and car. 

“I am a new father. It kills me that if I smoke a cigarette I can not be around my daughter until I shower and change my clothes that is why I stopped smoking cigarettes.” 

Now that he is vaping, he does not have to worry about producing secondhand smoke that could harm his daughter.

One customer even stated that after leaving the army and being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, better known as PTSD, he was smoking 3-4 pack of cigarettes in a week, but turned to vaping and it helped soothe him more that a cigarette did.

Though there are plenty of benefits of vaping instead of smoking cigarettes, there are still some problems with of vaping. The downside of vaping is you are still using an addictive chemical nicotine that can still have some health risks, such as heart disease.

Consumers that vape zero nicotine liquid will not have to worry about those health risk. Also, vaping has not been proven to help consumers stop smoking cigarettes.

The most important problem is that is middle and high school children vaping nicotine, thus causing the vaping industry a bad reputation and FDA’s involvement to put restrictions.

The intention of vaping and e-cigarettes was not to look cool doing it in a school setting, or even for minors to start using the addictive chemical. But the ultimate goal is to stop more than 480,000 smoke-causing deaths in the United States, according to the CDC.

The story concludes to vape or not to vape. The answer is very simple. If you have never smoked cigarettes before why start now and vape? Vape was invented and designed for former smokers to stop smoking cigarettes and cut back on nicotine as a whole.