The bottom line is simple: vaping is bad for you. No one can argue with the fact that nicotine is extremely addictive. Yet the Centers for Disease Control reports that over 2.5 million American teens engage in vaping on at least a monthly basis.

It’s important to state at the outset of this article that the legal age to purchase and/or use vaping products in Pennsylvania is 21.  Nevertheless, far too many teens gain access.

Whenever I talk to other teenagers about vaping, I notice how similar their responses are to each other and how much they want to quit but never seem to. Every time I’m with someone who has never started and tells me they want to, I explain very clearly how they should never start simply because they’ll likely never stop — or it will be extremely hard to.

Nicotine is by far one of the most unnecessary desires in our lives, but once hooked, little else can feel as necessary.

E-cigarettes were originally marketed as a “healthy alternative to traditional tobacco products,” and many tobacco users viewed the arrival of vape pens as a stepping stone toward quitting nicotine.

A vape is made up of three main components at minimum: a solvent of flavor, sweetener, and oil. This solvent oil is mainly vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol.  The solvent is what dissolves the nicotine-derived compounds so that they can be inhaled. This is all put into a pod, or holding device, on a battery. 

Health professionals have shown their concern over the rise of vaporizers, even while admitting that the amount of chemicals and dangerous substances found in traditional cigarettes is far greater.

E-cigarettes still contain nicotine, which makes vaping is an extremely addictive habit. For people with a pre-existing relationship with nicotine, it is highly unlikely that vaping will ween them from their addiction. And for people who have never experienced a nicotine addiction, it’s safest to keep it that way. 

When inhaling nicotine from a vape, the drug gets absorbed into the bloodstream and affects the brain in mere seconds. Once nicotine is ingested into the body, it triggers various chemical reactions that can create a sense of relaxation, focus and attention. However, these sensations are short-lived and harder to experience once a regular habit sets in, which only compels the user to use more. 

Vaping in itself is an oral fixation, not entirely un-related to gum chewing or nail-biting and smoking. In fact, the vape industry markets products with flavors that sound a lot like chewing gum: Blue Raspberry Cotton Candy, Rocket Pop, and Banana Split, to name just a few. It’s no surprise that young people are often the most likely to get hooked.

I once saw on an online chat from a 13 -year-old girl girl who explained how she took a hit of a candy-flavored vape and then handed it to her five-year-old sister. It terrified me to see that we could really be so unconsciously destructive. We have the power to be better examples to other and, at the very least, to not lead clean and sober-minded people down a path of ruin.

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Editors’ note: All opinions expressed on The Uproar are a reflection solely of the beliefs of the bylined author and not the journalism program at NASH.  We continue to welcome school-appropriate comments and guest articles.