Derek Nastasi
As we all know in this country, participation in vaping, juuling, and other alternatives to traditional tobacco has become very popular. Some people say that it's nice to see an alternative, but an increasing number has been calling this increase in popularity an epidemic; the president is one of them. Recently, President Trump, after new studies about vaping and its link to fatalities, responded by calling flavored-vaping an epidemic and now wants a ban nationwide. This will affect many high-school students because we all unfortunately know that high-school students vape A LOT.
In the last couple weeks there had been accusations and reports in the news, including Truthinitiative.org, NBC news, The White House, and Congress, that certain e-cigarette and vaping companies had been targeting children in advertising, which is illegal. Many, including the president, believe that flavors attract minors to the product. That is why in Trump’s planned legislation, he is not wanting to ban vaping or juuling as a whole, but just banning flavored vapes and leaving unflavored vapes alone. The Juul company said they plan to comply with every aspect of the planned legislation.
Trump isn’t the only person in power who is looking to combat vaping through legislation. New York and Michigan also had, but they actually enacted the ban statewide, the first states to do so.
Furthermore, the concept of a flavor ban isn’t even new. In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act banned all flavors in cigarettes except menthol to try and eliminate youth interest. There is controversy to this ban because some view it unconstitutional and similar to prohibition but most from what anyone can tell is in favor of this conservative legislation after looking at the facts.
Now this isn't just a matter of vaping companies targeting children, it's a matter of deaths caused by vaping. Recently the 10th person has died in the U.S. due to vaping. The surprising thing is that that vaping and e-cigarettes were supposed to be safe alternatives to cigarettes but they kill faster than cigarettes do. Anyone with knowledge on the effects of cigarettes know that smokers suffer a slow death, and die when they are elderly. On the other hand, with vaping it's only been out for a couple years and people are already dying from it as teenagers. There is a condition developed by vaping called wet lung, a process where water vapor turns into fluid and builds up in the lungs and the user chokes and dies. It is eerily similar to when soldiers in World War I inhaled chlorine gas and died from fluid buildup. According to Fox News, health officials said that there are 450 possible cases of lung illnesses due to vaping across the U.S. New York health officials are pointing the fingers at vitamin E acetate found in flavoring for the illnesses.
This controversial legislation has not yet been passed if it ever will nationally. Some folks look at this as an attack on freedom and think about what could be next to ban, firearms, alcohol? However the latter side is that people see the deaths and facts and as we all know, death is the catalyst for all legislation. If more deaths appear this legislation could be passed, or the ones who pursued this idea may call it off in the face of opposition or a priority change.