E-cigarette use amongst young adults: The danger behind it.

Doctors, FDA, and CDC officials have noticed a shocking trend of young adults using e-cigarettes not knowing the extreme dangers that follow.

Doctors all over the United States have found 450 possible cases across 33 different states. All of the patients had one thing in common: the use of e-cigarettes. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed five deaths were caused by e-cigarettes with exact medical symptoms. E-cigarettes are not healthy for your lungs and neither are your traditional e-cigarettes.

The New York Times reports on Dr. Dixie Harris, a pulmonologist at Salt Lake City hospital.  Harris has seen many young healthy patients admitted to the intensive unit with trouble breathing.

Her first patient, a man in his 20’s, was vomiting and had unexplainable headaches and pains. He also had trouble breathing. Harris believed that it was an infection in his lungs causing him troubled breathing but found nothing.

Only days later, several cases surfaced with the same symptoms. “It’s not typical [to see a young person] go to the ICU in that much distress without an obvious infection,” Harris told The New York Times. With these questions arising, doctors came up with a theory that the cause may be from vaping or THC oils, since all of their patients had that in common.

Another article, from Yale Medicine, discusses the stubborn lasting effects on the brain when young adults use e-cigarettes. Yale medicine explains, “When potentially risky behaviors experience an uptick in popularity, health researchers are never far behind- gathering data.” 

In the article, these doctors describe that teens are not aware of how harmful cigarettes can be to their developing brains. Tests have proven that the brain does not stop growing until around age 25. E-cigarettes are seen to be “better for you” than cigarettes. This may be true, but the amount of chemicals found in e-cigarettes are just as damaging for the developing brain. 

The part of the brain that is responsible for decision making and impulse control is not yet fully developed during adolescence. Young adults are at risk for long-term, long-lasting effects of exposing their developing brains to nicotine.

In an article from Yale medicine by Kathleen Raven, Yale medicine quotes,” Nicotine exposure to young adults can slow brain development in teens and affect memory, concentration, learning, self-control, attention, and mood.” Some of the brain changes are permanent and can affect your mood and ability to control your impulses as an adult.

Kathleen Raven from Yale medicine stresses that the suggestion to use e-cigarettes to “protect” them from using cigarettes is false and that there is no evidence to support that claim. Studies have shown that non-smoking youth who use e-cigarettes are more likely to try conventional cigarettes in the future which can cause more medical issues down the road.

FDA investigators found the company broke the law, “by selling or distributing them as modified risk tobacco products without FDA order in effect that permits such sale or distribution.” Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless says, “JUUL has ignored the law, and very concerningly, has made some of these statements in school to our nation’s youth.” 

The reason people use e-cigarettes is because they are less lethal than conventional cigarettes. When smoking a cigarette, the most toxic part is found in the tar. The major benefit of an e-cigarette is that they do not produce the tar or toxic gases found in cigarette smoke. Cigarettes are the number one cause of preventable death in the United States, killing 480,000 people every year. 

Sources

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/09/fda-says-juul-illegally-promoted-its-e-cigarettes-as-less-harmful-than-cigarettes.html

https://www.yalemedicine.org/stories/teen-vaping/