Vaping: What Say You?

Today I ask about vaping, the ever-growing trend that has risen over the last few years to a ridiculously high rate. What say you on this issue?

We glamorize or romanticize photography where people smoke. Guys covered in tats smoking on bikes, chicks scantily clad on their backs, puffing out beautiful white images against black backgrounds. The old pictures of movie stars, using cigarettes as props. Sexy. Alluring. The old movies themselves. The artistry smoke makes in a darkly-lit world of cinematography. But that’s art, right? More fantasy. Not real. Not happening in front of us, our lungs, and our environment. Maybe we can argue that.

But in real life, smoking is just…well...not only deadly, but nasty. It smells. Kissing someone after smoking is…not sexy. Walking into a room where someone has been smoking makes those of us, who don’t smoke, ill. Renting a car where someone has been smoking cannot be erased with a spray of the bottle. It seeps into fabric. It stays in the air, stale and unappetizing. The verdict is out. Smoking traditional cigs kills us, first-hand, second-hand, and third-hand. But what of vaping?

Well…it’s a constant battle in my world, where fighting the vapers on a tobacco-free campus becomes quite contentious, and they make valid points. It doesn’t smell. I’m not ingesting it myself the way I would be forced to do so with regular cigarettes. And it harms (maybe) only the vaper.
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And this debate isn’t going to get easier as more and more people choose to vape. While traditional smoking has decreased exponentially, the surgeon general states that”e -cigarettes are very popular with young people” and that their use is “higher…than adults.” And it’s even increasing in middle school and especially high school students. 'How? Isn’t that illegal?' I ask myself. But I suppose it’s no different than how we all got our underage drinking gems, right? We were that young once. And these taboo things are still cool. Smoking “real” cigs isn’t anymore. Not by a long shot. But this? Cool AND seemingly harmless.

The problem is that the verdict is still out on the health risks. It’s too soon for anything conclusive. Still, early reports are coming out. And it couldn’t be more contradictory. No one can deny that nicotine is addictive though. And so, “no matter how it's delivered, nicotine is harmful for youth and young adults” in regards to addiction. But, further, the surgeon general goes on to say that “e-cigarettes typically contain [chemicals]…that are known to damage health.” In addition, “Some initial research shows it may hurt…arteries. Some brands contain chemicals including formaldehyde -- often used in building materials -- and another ingredient used in antifreeze that can cause cancer.”   

But even then, there is more conflicting information. And no one can deny that if you’re going to choose to do one over the other, e-cigs are clearly not as harmful. In a 2015 expert review from Public Health England regarding smoking, it states, “Most of the harm comes from the thousands of chemicals that are burned and inhaled in the smoke…E-cigs don't burn, so people aren't as exposed to those toxins.” The study’s conclusion? “E-cigs are 95% less harmful than the real thing.”

So I don’t know about you. Have you tried it? Are you a former smoker who quit traditionally smoking as a result? And all these reports I’m reading only mention young people. Does that mean it’s not harmful to adults? And why shouldn’t someone who wants to smoke not be able to do so wherever they are? They are not polluting the air in which I breathe. It doesn’t affect me. In fact, when I teach in long blocks, a student who vapes comes back calm, refreshed, and often able to concentrate again.

Common sense tells us that anything foreign we ingest into our bodies that way can’t be good. We know better. But is it any worse than anything else we do to our bodies, both deliberately and by no choice of our own? Bad food filled with chemicals? Pollution we breathe every day? Taking over-the-counter meds to cure ailments and headaches? Milk filled with injected hormones?

If e-cigs are legal, who am I to say? I’m on the fence on this one. I, myself, may not choose to do it, but if it doesn’t harm me, personally, who am I to judge? Would I encourage my students to start? Of course not. Would I encourage them to NOT pick up a bad habit? Yes, just as I might other healthy habits they don’t have. But will I NOT allow the donuts they eat on campus daily that we sell? Nope. Are e-cigs any different?

Like all bad habits, it seems by the time they get to me, it’s too late to change, not without them really wanting to. If we’re going to combat addiction, we have to start younger. But there’s the rub, the companies know that and have always targeted the young, from traditional cigs to e-cigs to sugary cereals, it’s the youth that always suffers. And that--THAT is the problem we should be addressing...