Becca Arison
The numbers are terrifying. Eleven percent of high school seniors, eight percent of 10th-graders, and 3.5 percent of eighth-graders reported vaping with nicotine in a one month period, according to a national survey released from the University of Michigan late last year. And the worst part? Teens think it’s harmless. To vape is to inhale vapor created from a liquid heated up inside a device. It only gets worse from there. These devices have many names—vape pens, pods, tanks, electronic nicotine delivery devices (ENDS), e-hookahs and e-cigarettes. The liquid that is obtained in these devices also has many monikers—it might be called e-juice, e-liquid, cartridges, pods, or oil. Most of these vapes have liquids that contain a combination of propylene glycol or glycerol as a base, and nicotine, marijuana, or flavoring chemicals to produce common or outlandish flavors.
One of the biggest concerns with teenagers is the JUUL. Sleek and slim, with an appearance that mirrors a flash drive, the JUUL has been established among youth as the vaping tool of choice. Teens are starting to think “JUULing” makes them cool. These devices are meant to help people that smoke cigarettes, quit. That’s what it started out to be. But many teens and young adults started to JUUL when they came out with the flavors like Mint, Cool Cucumber, Mango, Fruit Melody, Creme Brulee, etc. These are the flavors that got many teens and young adults, that didn’t even smoke cigarettes, addicted to nicotine. The nicotine percentages in a JUUL go up as high as 5%. That’s about the same amount of nicotine in one pack of cigarettes. Teens are slowly dying from vaping without even realizing it. This needs to stop.