There was a young 18-year-old woman that started vaping. Previously to her vaping, she was completely healthy, but after three weeks of her vaping, she developed this nasty cough. This cough was something a little more serious though. She got a disease called “Wet Lung” that not only gave her the coughing, but she had this stabbing pain in her chest that led to her to respiratory failure. Although she did make a full recovery the doctors fully blame vaping for her lung collapsing. The details to this incident can be found on the AAP News Website. This is just one of many stories where vaping has turned people for the worse. There are so many dangerous chemicals in the E-Liquid most of which you probably do not know about. That is why I am here to tell you that vaping is extremely unhealthy for you, and if you vape you should stop now.

Why you Should Vape.

There are a lot of reasons why you might want to vape. You might be trying to quit smoking which if that is the case great, but some people who do not smoke vape also. If you are one of those people maybe you see people blowing the vapor and making cool tricks, and you just want to replicate these tricks. Maybe someone offered it to you and you tried it. Now you are addicted cannot stop, but what is the harm in it. It is way better than smoking and it is a lot of fun right. Well not necessarily and here is why.

Why are Teens Becoming Addicted?

It really is not a mystery of why so many teens are becoming addicted. Companies like Juul make very cheap vape sticks that teens have very

Photo BY Zain Ali

easy access to. Companies use fun flavor names to lure teens in like “Cinnaroll”, “Mixed Berry”, or stay with me here “Krispy Krack Doughnut”. You can find these flavors on any E-Liquid website, for example ELIQUID DEPOT. These names can make teens want to try vaping, and if they have little knowledge of what is in E-Liquid they can very quickly become addicted and put in danger of other physical health risks. Also, if they do not know the risks they can think it is fine they might go show their friend a trick or say “Hey Jimmy come to try this, I have this new flavor that I think is really good. It is completely harmless.” Next thing you know you have two people addicted instead of one. This number will then continue to grow exponentially throughout a community.

Statistics:

I did an anonymous survey at my school to see how many people vaped of those around me. With seventy percent of the people who took the survey being female, twenty-eight percent being male, and two percent preferring not to say, sixteen percent said the did indeed vape. Of those people, they said the average age of the people they knew that vaped were in high school. Yes, this can be because I surveyed a high school, but it also shows that the majority of people who vape are indeed teenagers. Twenty percent of the people surveyed said that nothing major could go wrong from vaping. Hopefully, you can learn something from this article that can change that opinion. Of the students surveyed the majority said they knew at least about fifteen to twenty people who vaped.

What is E-Liquid Really Made of?

To start this off, most E-Liquids contain some good old H₂O or more commonly known as water. Water is perfectly healthy for you, in fact, you can not live without it. The next chemical is vegetable glycerin. Vegetable glycerin will do little to no harm in small doses, but the risks will creep up on you if the dose gets too high. Some effects can be nausea, vomiting, and a headache. These can be fixed by just lying down for a while, but wait it gets worse. In more rare cases the vegetable glycerin can cause an irregular heartbeat and confusion which require immediate medical attention. [perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Propylene glycol is tasteless, and odorless alcohol used in antifreeze.[/perfectpullquote]Next on the list is propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is tasteless, and odorless alcohol used in antifreeze. Does that not say enough, if it is used in antifreeze can it really be good for your body. If that was not enough propylene glycol is known to cause headaches, drowsiness, and dizziness. You can find all of these ingredients in an article by Wired.

A More Serious Chemical.

One of the main chemicals that sticks out as a chemical that is horrible is something hard to find. It is hidden in the “Flavorings” category and the company can keep it a secret. That chemical is formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a chemical that has been historically used as a disinfectant. That is right you are inhaling a disinfectant and not just a disinfectant. This is a disinfectant that can cause cancer. Scientists have tested this to prove that it really can cause cancer. Another fact, the levels of formaldehyde found from vape is up to fifteen times higher than what would be found in a normal cigarette. Also, the new formaldehyde compounds allow the formaldehyde to be absorbed more deeply into your lungs. [perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]So just like if you were smoking a cigarette if you wanna vape, good for you. Have fun with cancer in the future[/perfectpullquote]So just like if you were smoking a cigarette if you wanna vape, good for you. Have fun with cancer in the future, and if you do not believe me Cancer.gov has a great article on the risks formaldehyde presents. 

The Most Commonly Known Chemical.

Nicotine, what would this article be about if I did not talk about nicotine. One of the crazy things about nicotine is how addictive it is. Once you inhale it you will be able to feel the effects of it within a minute. Nicotine has been proven to be up to ten times more potent than cocaine or morphine in creating effects associated with addiction. So it is not a surprise to see a lot of people becoming addicted to vaping when you find out that there are 20 cigarettes worth of nicotine in one Juul pod. You can find more on why nicotine is bad for you in an article by Becky McCall.

Smoking V.S. Vaping:

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As of now vaping would be considered healthier because vaping does not have as many side effects that we know of, yet. I say yet because there is still so much to be known about vaping and E-Liquid. This is simply because it has not been around long enough to be fully tested. Go back to the 1960’s when people encouraged smoking. Smoking was said to improve your way of living.  Look at it know, it is one of the worst things you can do to your body. To know the full repercussions of vaping we simply have to wait. What we can do now is look at what is in E-Liquid and say without a doubt that this is not good for your body. There is more information on asapscience.com 

Conclusion:

There are many chemicals in E-Liquid that you may not have known about. Hopefully, this informed you about all of the danger that can come from vaping, and how harmful those chemicals can be. There is so much unknown with the E-Liquid that vaping should be completely labeled as unsafe. If you are vaping to quit smoking that is great but eventually try to quit vaping as well. If you are vaping just to vape, stop. It is not worth the risk. My hope is that this article changes one person’s mind about vaping or keep someone from starting. If I can successfully do that then to me this article was a success.

Featured Image By Lee Phillips