By Megan Munson
Health Editor
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] teenager trying to quit smoking turns to a different device, one with no long-lasting vapor nor musty smell, a device that uses technology to curb cravings or foster new ones.
According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) among teenagers has doubled in the past two years. Is the rising trend a harmless habit or a toxic health risk?
In order to buy e-cigarettes in North Carolina, you must be at least 18 years old, the same legal age limit in place for buying regular cigarettes. This is despite the fact e-cigarettes can come with or without nicotine.
Nicotine is a health risk, but so is the motion of consistently lifting your fingers to your lips, school nurse Robyn Dozier says.
“If you’re using the e-cig with nicotine, it (poses) the same risk as any other nicotine ingested. Nicotine has adverse effects. It’s addicting,” Dozier said. “For those who start e-cigs (before cigarettes), you don’t want to develop a habit of ingesting nicotine, or even (using) nicotine-free e-cigs. You don’t want that habit of doing a repetitive pleasurable motion.”
Users of e-cigarettes inhale through the battery-powered cigarette, causing a sensor to switch on a tiny heater inside, enabling it to work, according to WebMD.com. The heater then starts vaporizing the nicotine and the chemical propylene glycol, or PEG.
In nicotine-free e-cigarettes, the vaporization is solely composed of the PEG. Users then exhale the PEG vapor, which quickly vanishes. Dustin (name changed) produces his own atomizers, which are the heaters inside the devices that act like matches in normal cigarettes.
“Atomizers are the main parts of e-cigarettes,” Dustin said. “When liquid goes around the atomizer and you inhale, it takes the liquid and adds heat and air to it, which turns (the liquid) into a vapor. When you inhale the liquid, it turns into a vapor and (that’s where the) liquid nicotine (is) added.”
North Carolina currently classifies e-cigarettes as vapor products, which emit gas, instead of a smoke-producing invention, according to WashingtonPost.com. Nine states label them as tobacco products. New York City has approved a law that increases the legal smoking age to 21. Because the proposed bill also increases the buying age for tobacco products, e-cigarettes are only legal to anyone 21 and over compared to the current law that sets the legal age at 18.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says increasing the smoking age will preserve life.
“By increasing the smoking age to 21, we will help prevent another generation from the ill health and shorter life expectancy that comes with smoking,” Bloomberg said in an article by CNN’s Rande Laboni.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the process of determining whether e-cigarettes are safe to continue selling. Since the government has not decided whether they will be banned or not, manufacturing and selling them remains legal.
Some students believe that since e-cigarettes have yet to be approved at the federal level, they are too dangerous to try and people should refrain from using them.
“E-cigarettes aren’t government-mandated so the ingredients cannot be monitored as closely as regular cigarettes,” sophomore Carla Hardy said. “According to a segment I saw on NBC Nightly News, a lot of e-cigarette companies add chemicals such as freezing agents to e-cigs, which are extremely harmful to your lungs.”
E-cigarettes have helped Dustin quit smoking, a habit he started when he was 14. He has seen several benefits of smoking e-cigarettes, compared to normal cigarettes, when he started smoking e-cigarettes containing nicotine over a year ago.
“At first, smoking e-cigs was just an experiment, but then I realized it actually (relieved) the itch that my body was craving without the hazards of a real cigarette,” Dustin said. “There (is) no nasty taste after you’re done. (In addition), they come in all types of flavors, you can do it indoors without the odor…and it is cheaper than smoking real cigarettes.”
For Garrett (name changed), smoking nicotine-free e-cigarettes is a safer and more enjoyable option than normal cigarettes.
“I think it is possible to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigs, but I personally do not like the feeling nicotine gives me, and I’m an (easily-addicted) person,” Garrett said. “Nicotine is extremely addictive, though, so I have to be careful. I could care less about the nicotine because I did not smoke in the first place.”
According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, 10 percent of high school students in 2013 have experimented with e-cigarettes. The CDC suggests that this number is partially due to the variety of flavors of e-cigarettes, as these flavors appeal to younger consumers.
“Most people I know only use them for flavor and don’t get the nicotine with them. That’s actually how I prefer it,” Garrett said. “The store…has any flavor you could ever want, from Red Bull to caramel apple to cherry limeade.”
Several students admitted to seeing, as well as hearing of, e-cigarettes being smoked during class.
“I have seen a boy in my class using one on a daily basis,” said one freshman, who asked to remain anonymous.
Dustin admits to smoking his e-cigarette in class and cites peer pressure and the desire to look cool as the reasons. “I smoked an e-cig in school to show off to my friends,” Dustin said.
Until the FDA determines whether or not e-cigarettes are safe for public use, people remain divided over their potential risks and benefits.
“A lot of people use the (e-cigarettes) with nicotine, so it is not like quitting (smoking) cold turkey,” Dozier said. “They are not as detrimental as smoking two packs of regular cigarettes, but any nicotine is not necessarily safe for you.”
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