Category Archives: Vaping

ByLisa Ercolano

A new artificial intelligence analysis of thousands of posts from the popular online discussion forum Reddit reveals that vapers are concerned about e-cigarettes' possible impact on everything from their respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular systems to their mental and sexual health and sleep patterns. They also worry about the possibility of addiction, cancer, and dental problems.

"Our goal is to shed light on how the public, in their natural conversations, describe health concerns associated with vaping e-cigarettes," said Alexandra DeLucia, a doctoral candidate in computer science at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering.

DeLucia was part of a multi-institution team that conducted the research as part of the JHU's Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation funded by the Food and Drug Administration. The team included colleagues from the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, or CTP.

Alexandra DeLucia

Doctoral candidate, computer science

"The FDA CTP's mission is to protect Americans from tobacco-related diseases and death," DeLucia said. "Our hope is that hearing what 'real voices' are saying will significantly enhance understanding of how people think about e-cigarettes."

The researchers believe this information has the potential to inform new, more effective public health research and media campaigns by leveraging the voices and experiences of ordinary people who use e-cigarettes.

DeLucia worked on the analysis with Mark Dredze, an associate professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins and director of research (foundations of AI) at the university's AI-X Foundry; Adam Poliak, an assistant professor of computer science at Bryn Mawr College; and John W. Ayers, associate adjunct professor of medicine at University of California San Diego.

To find detailed discussions about e-cigarettes, the team turned to Reddit, with its 55 million daily users and about 10 million daily posts. Reddit was preferred over Twitter and other social media platforms because of its long, conversational format.

"Tweets are great for learning what restaurants someone went to last night or what political party they support," DeLucia said, "but when it comes to complex issues, we need richer data that goes beyond Twitter's social media character limits. Reddit gives us that."

In addition, Reddit conversations are conveniently organized into smaller communities called "subreddits," allowing the researchers to identify conversations related to vaping and to have confidence that the conversations being analyzed were relevant. To further focus their data, the team included only discussion threads and posts that contained the phrase "does ____ cause," DeLucia said.

"That allowed us to capture questions such as 'Does e-juice cause X' or 'Does vaping cause X?'" she said.

"What we learned was that people posting in discussion threads about e-cigarette use on Reddit primarily describe respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular concerns," DeLucia said. "Less-cited concerns were neurological, dermatology, oral health, and sexual health. Additionally, psychiatry, oncologic, addiction, and sleep concerns were raised by posters."

Next steps for this research include applying this method to additional Reddit communities to discover perceived health outcomes of other products.

DeLucia and the team presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, held in early March in San Antonio.

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Smoke signals: Reddit users concerned by health risks of vaping - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

Vaping has become an epidemic among children, kids as young as second grade are vaping, and drugs could be hidden anywhere.

Those were some of the topics Officer Jermaine Galloway discussed earlier this week, during his workshop High in Plain Sight: Current Drug Trends, at Monroe County Community College. Galloway, who is 6 feet, 9 inches tall, goes by the nickname "Tall Cop."

Attending were about 90 people, mostly law enforcement officers and school resource personnel.

He is a dynamic presenter on current trends, and he is in high demand. I believe he was well-received, and I would say the attendees walked away with knowledge that they did not know prior to walking into the room, Vicky Loveland, coordinator of the Monroe County Substance Abuse Coalition, said. Loveland organized the workshop with Jean Foster, regional school health coordinator for the Monroe County Intermediate School District.

Gallowaycovered about 30 topics in Monroe.

Everything thats trending. I talked about fentanyl and things that travel with fentanyl, over-the-counter drugs, youth drug use, vaping, many things, he said.

Galloway shares the latest drug trends with audiences from professionals to parents. Because his program in Monroe was geared to law enforcement officers, he didnt want the content shared publicly.

Theres a fine line between education and teaching people stuff you dont want to teach them, Galloway said.

But Galloway did have plenty he could share about drug abuse with Monroe County families. Most parents, he said, are surprised by his information.

They say, Wow, we didnt know any of this. They say, I thought I understood drug trends. I did drugs, Galloway said. Dont for a second think you know. Its evolving so rapidly.

His No. 1 message: Vaping is an epidemic among school-age students across the country.

I dont use that term lightly. Heroin is an epidemic on the streets. Vaping is an epidemic for kids, and its not going away anytime soon. Vaping is by far No. 1, Galloway said.

While school-age children are still using prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs like Xanax, alcohol and fentanyl at increasing rates, none are at the use level of vaping.

Vaping also has become the new gateway drug, an introductory drug that gets users into increasingly more serious drugs.

Some think its cannabis. Its vaping, 100%. Some are using it in second and third grades, Galloway said.

Many children get vaping paraphernalia, either indirectly or directly, from their parents.

Parents cant find their vape pen; their kids are taking hits off it. Or parents (allow it), saying, At least my kid is not using hard drugs. They all start with the small stuff, and it evolves. Parents need to say, They arent doing the hard drugs yet, Galloway said.

Because nicotine is so addictive, parents cannot simply tell their kids to stop vaping, Galloway said.

Its highly addictive. The kids are addicted. They will need help. They will need treatment and other resources. You cannot use consequences to get out of addiction. Punishment simply doesnt work. You have to do something else, he said.

There is not a magic answer, Loveland said. He understands, though, that schools are not equipped to deal with the addiction, and suspension, whether out-of-school or in-school, are the only options they have.

Foster appreciated Galloways honest information on vaping.

He emphasized that this is not going away and in fact might get worse.I appreciated his depth of knowledge and the new information he brought to us all. Although scary, it is critical information for all of us, she said.

Galloway also offered warning signs that a child or teen is using drugs. While changes in behavior and new friends are warning signs, change in attitude is the biggest clue.

The I dont care attitude. All our kids always say that, but this is truly not caring what happens and what the consequences are. They give up on everything they used to love. Pay attention to that, he said.

Another warning sign of drug use is noticing items out of place.

A mom found drugs in a highlighter. Why did she search it? She said, My son is always moving it, but I never saw him using it. That stood out to her, he said.

Galloway spent 18 years in law enforcement before becoming a substance abuse trainer in 2002. Today, he travels to two to three states a week and speaks to 80,000 people a year.

It grew. At first it was locally, then around the state, which was Idaho at the time, then some neighboring states. My name started to get out and teaching took off from there. Now I train nationwide and in Canada, he said.

Galloway has received numerous awards for his work and gets letters and emails weekly from parents and law enforcement officers. Many tell him his message helped a child get treatment.

Galloway said he learns current trends through a boots on the ground approach.

I find information everywhere. People send me a lot. I spend a lot of time in stores, he said.

His training message changes almost daily.

I build each training for the group Im training. I work on it every week. Im always adding, he said. I take pride in getting you the information before the article comes out.

To learn more, visit tallcopsaysstop.com or Tall Cop Says Stop on Facebook.

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International speaker Tall Cop visits Monroe, talks about drug use ... - Monroe Evening News

Published 1:25 pm Thursday, May 11, 2023

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A Thorsby High School science student gives her presentation on the epidemic of vaping to students on May 10. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

All of the Thorsby High School science students who participated in the vaping presentations. (BRIDGET CATON | CONTRIBUTED)

A group of Thorsby High School students giving their presentation on May 10. (CAREY REEDER | ADVERTISER)

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Stoichiometry is a tough lesson to get through for any high school chemistry student with the amount of math involved in it. However, Thorsby High School science teacher Bridget Caton came up with an idea to not only teach her students about stoichiometry, but give them a chance to make an impact on their school.

Stoichiometry, in more or less words, is a section of chemistry that involves using relationships between two reactants, or products, to determine desired outcomes.

This is a unit that students kind of get bored with because it is a lot of math, Caton said. I was trying to think of something that would engage them, and I wanted to do something real world and something that they got an opportunity to say This is what we want to do.

Caton started the lesson by asking what epidemics the students in this generation are facing in the real world. Depression, anxiety and stress were the big ones brought up. Students then talked about ways students cope with those things and vaping was mentioned.

Caton broke her class into seven groups and they were tasked with creating presentations about how harmful vaping is to those who do it, but also those around it as well. The students came up with the research on their own and designed their models which had to show the effects vaping has on the human body. Finally, the students came up with solutions for how vaping can be prevented at Thorsby next school year.

A lot of websites for vaping are geared more towards showing that it is not as bad as people make it out to be. Catons students had to navigate through those to find the proper information that combats vaping.

It was really hard to get everything together and the internet did not provide us with a lot of information, Faith Pledger, a Thorsby student who participated in one of the presentations, said. We had to come up with all the formulas ourselves, and it took a lot of time. It means a lot to us because not only are people vaping affected, but we are also affected by just walking in the hallway. It is a very harmful substance and we want to show people that they are not alone and there are resources where they can get help. We worked really hard to get here.

There was a lot of work put into it, Presley-Raye Knighton, one of Catons chemistry students who did a presentation, said. We had to dig really deep to find information and then apply that to everything Miss Caton has taught us. It was a lot of long nights at peoples houses working We really care about this subject and wanted to spread awareness.

Caton will continue to work with the vaping presentations and models the students put together in the fall when she has the same groups for an anatomy class. Each group presented fundraisers to help combat vaping on Thorsbys campus such as a bake sale to raise money for vape smoke detectors in all of the Thorsby bathrooms and counseling for students who struggle with vaping as an alternative to being suspended for it.

All of the ideas and fundraisers were student generated, and Caton plans to help them in any way she can to achieve those goals.

Overall, it was a very good lesson and they learned stoichiometry from it for sure, Caton said. They were able to contribute something that they came up with and that can help their school, siblings and themselves later on.

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Thorsby students combat vaping with presentations - The Clanton ... - Clanton Advertiser

If you visit vape stores or vape websites, youre likely to see a wide selection of colorful pods, cartridges and bottles filled with flavored e-liquid, or vape juice. The vape juice is heated in e-cigarettes and vape rigs, and it creates an aerosol that users inhale.

Vape juice comes in a variety of flavors, including candy, bubblegum and childrens cereals. Johns Hopkins cardiologist Michael Blaha, M.D., M.P.H., discusses vape flavors and other e-liquid ingredients, and how they may affect health, particularly for children and teens.

Flavor is just one of the ingredients in e-liquid. Vape juices usually include nicotine and many other additives and chemicals, and Blaha says the unpredictable variety of ingredients is a problem. Even the heating coil, which allows the liquid to become an inhalable aerosol, releases new chemical substances and trace metals that go into the users lungs.

There are so many ingredients in e-liquids, and to date, no one is taking responsibility to account for them, notes Blaha. He explains that while there may be production standards for commercial e-cigarette companies, standards for vape shops, off-brand online vendors or homemade vape juice blends are less consistent.

Vape juice can contain a variety of things that could be toxic, Blaha says. There can be flavors, dyes, nicotine, THC (the ingredient in marijuana that causes a high) and other substances. There are all kinds of concoctions, he says. For example, there are reports that people may put essential oils, multivitamins or traces of medicines into e-liquids.

Some of these additives found in e-liquid are dangerous even deadly. For example, vitamin E acetate has been indicated in EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury. This is a potentially fatal syndrome associated with vaping, and it was on the rise in 2019. Vitamin E acetate is OK to eat, but dangerous to inhale.

Theres no doubt about it, Blaha says. Some of the chest X-rays of patients with EVALI show signs of oily chemical irritation of the lungs.

So when it comes to inhaling vape juice, we dont know whats safe. You may be able to eat something safely, but if you inhale it, there may be a harmful effect.

Blaha says theres limited evidence that vape juice flavors themselves are dangerous to individual users. But there are unknowns research suggests that flavors, when combined with other vape juice ingredients and heated, can create new compounds that may be harmful.

Inhaling harmful substances can affect more than just the lungs. Some vaping enthusiasts describe a phenomenon called vapers tongue, which causes a sudden full or partial loss of the ability to taste.

As a specialist in heart disease, Blaha treats patients who have urgent reasons to quit smoking cigarettes. These patients are often older adults who may have heart disease associated with smoking, and Blaha says they are motivated to quit. For the smaller group of adults who have unsuccessfully tried all strategies approved by the Food and Drug Administration to stop smoking, vaping and using e-cigarettes may help them kick the habit. Some prefer using flavored vape products as a way to help quit smoking, with the ultimate goal of complete cessation from all tobacco products.

But Blaha is particularly concerned about e-cigarette use and vaping among young people, and the surging incidence of vaping among kids who have never smoked. These young people are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the nicotine in vaping devices and e-cigarettes, and flavors may be making vaping more appealing to them. Blaha observes that the appeal of vape flavors, rather than flavor ingredients themselves, may have a broader danger to the public.

The key thing about flavors is that they seem to appeal to young people, he says. There is evidence that kids like the flavors like bubble gum, fruit and candy, and like trying new ones. For a lot of young people, it might be that the only reason they vape or use e-cigarettes is because they like the flavors.

While more research may determine the overall harm from vaping, it is already clear that using homemade or unregulated vape juices can introduce unknown and potentially harmful substances into users lungs. Another main concern is the addictive nature of nicotine in vape juice or any tobacco product.

Since smoking has a major impact on health, Blaha recommends discussing all nicotine use and tobacco cessation options with a doctor.

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Vape Flavors and Vape Juice: What You Need to Know

Vaping and e-cigarettes are sometimes promoted as ways to help cigarettesmokers quit. But what about the reverse? Can vaping lead to regularcigarette smoking later on?

A Johns Hopkins cardiologist shares his insights on the potential dangersof vaping, and why avoiding cigarettes and their electronicalternatives is the healthier choice.

Michael Blaha, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, directs clinical research attheCiccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.

Blaha says that although vaping may not be as dangerous as smoking, itsnot a safe practice.

Some e-cigarettes and vape juices contain nicotine, an addictivesubstance in tobacco. As of 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)classifies e-cigarettes and nicotine-laced vape juice as tobacco productsand regulates them accordingly.

Blaha says that while the FDA has recently taken a stance that is moretoward what it calls modified risk tobacco products that cause less harmthan smoking, vaping is certainly more harmful than not using anything atall.

Kids have such a poor understanding of vaping products itsextraordinary, he says. Sometimes they dont know that theres nicotinein them or what the dose is, or what the impact of the flavorings might be.

But because using these products is more socially acceptable than smoking,they might think that electronic cigarettes are perfectly safe.

In addition to nicotine, artificial flavorings and other chemicals thatusers inhale, Blaha is concerned about some of the behavioral aspects ofvaping.

I think perhaps the #1 concern about vaping right now is theso-called gateway effect. Our own literature suggests that 2 million youngadults use electronic cigarettes as their first nicotine-based product.Theyre not trying to quit smoking theyve never smoked before.

Nicotine in any form is highly addictive. Vaping, using nicotine-lacedproducts, can become a tenacious and expensive habit, and kids might notstop there.

Blaha says theres evidence that young people who vape are more likely togo on to use illicit drugs and tobacco products such as cigarettes.

We might be causing the next smoking epidemic through young people gettingaddicted to electronic cigarettes early in life, he says.

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Will Vaping Lead Teens to Smoking Cigarettes? - Johns Hopkins Medicine

For both studies, the researchers caution that they werent designed to show that vaping directly causes lung disease, but only whether doing so was associated with an increased likelihood of having disease. The researchers also didnt distinguish between vaping tobacco compared with cannabis. They also cautioned that self-reports via telephone surveys may not be wholly reliable. However, they say their findings demonstrate the need for continued research with e-cigarette users over time to confirm and clarify the risks.

Although e-cigarettes may turn out to be safer overall than traditional combustible cigarettes, our studies add to growing evidence that they carry health risks, says Michael Blaha, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. These studies are the first in a series of larger and long-term studies that will more definitively provide evidence to inform tobacco users and regulators.

Asthma, marked by inflammation of the airways and shortness of breath, affects an estimated 25 million Americans, and life-threatening episodes can be triggered easily by pollution, allergies and smoking. COPD, which affects some 16 million Americans, describes a group of disorders including emphysema and chronic bronchitis that make it hard to breathe due to permanent damage to the lungs over time. Rates of asthma and COPD are rising worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Most cases of COPD result from smoking traditional cigarettes.

A study published by Blaha earlier this year in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that 1.4% of people, or about 1.9 million people in the U.S., solely use e-cigarettes. Scattered reports have linked the practice to a spike in respiratory illnesses dubbed EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury), affecting more than 2,500 people and associated with numerous deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because vaping and the products inhaled with it are still relatively new to the market, its safety remains unclear.

To shed some light on the risk, the researchers took advantage of national survey data gathered by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 2016 and 2017. This annual survey, commissioned by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consisted of telephone interviews of more than 400,000 adult participants and provides data on health-related risk behaviors and chronic medical conditions.

In the analysis published in BMC Pulmonary Medicine, the investigators analyzed data from 402,822people who identified themselves as never smokers, meaning they said they had smoked less than 100 combustible cigarettes in their lifetimes. Of these, 3,103 reported using e-cigarettes or vaping, and separately 34,074 people reported having asthma. The average age of e-cigarette users was 1824. About 67% of e-cigarette users were men. Approximately 57% of e-cigarette users reported that they were white, 19% were Hispanic and 12% were black.

Almost 11% of the e-cigarette users reported having asthma, compared with 8% of those who had never used e-cigarettes. Those people who reported being current e-cigarette users were 39% more likely to self-report having asthma compared with those people who said they never used e-cigarettes. Those who said they used e-cigarettes some days were 31% more likely, and daily users were 73% more likely to report asthma, compared with non-e-cigarette users.

For the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the researchers analyzed the same data from all the questioned participants. From the more than 700,000 interviewees, about 61% reported being never smokers, about 9% were current smokers, 30% were former smokers, more than 3% said they currently used e-cigarettes, and 2% said they used both e-cigarettes and smoked. The e-cigarette users were more likely to fall in the age range of 3034, almost 60% were men, 72% identified as white, 8% as black, 3.5% as Asian and 11% as Hispanic.

Of those who said they used e-cigarettes, about 11% said they had chronic bronchitis, emphysema or COPD, compared with 5.6% of people who said they had never used e-cigarettes. Among never smokers, current e-cigarette users were 75% more likely to report having COPD, compared with those who had never used them. Those who said they used both e-cigarettes and smoked cigarettes were almost six times more likely to report having COPD, compared with those who had never used either, whereas just using combustible cigarettes alone increased the odds by three times.

As a physician, I am most worried about those who use both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes because they may end up taking in the most nicotine, which may do the most damage, says Albert Osei, M.D., M.P.H., a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author on the study. Through public health campaigns, we finally had smoking levels down in some populations, but now with the current vaping epidemic, I foresee a whole new previously tobacco-nave, young generation becoming dependent on nicotine if we do not intensify public health education efforts.

According to the CDC, of the 16 million people in the U.S. who have COPD, 38% of them still smoke.

Additional authors on these studies include Mohammadhassan Mirbolouk, Olusola Orimoloye, Omar Dzaye, S. M. Iftekhar Uddin, Zeina Dardari and Shyam Biswal of Johns Hopkins; Andrew DeFilippis and Aruni Bhatnagar of University of Louisville; Emelia Benjamin of Boston University; and Michael Hall of University of Mississippi Medical Center.

This study was supported by a grant from the American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center, which is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute/U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2U54HL120163).

COI: Defilippis receives funding from Astra Zeneca and consults for Radiometer America, Inc.

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Vaping Increases Odds of Asthma and COPD - Johns Hopkins Medicine

Skin Burns

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Vaping burns are rare, but they can be serious, according to the FDA, especially if the device catches on fire while in the owners pocket. Heres what you should know if you get burned by a vape pen or e-cigarette.

Julie Ann Caffrey, D.O., M.S., assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and director of the Burn Fellowship Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, notes that vape burns are getting more attention among burn professionals. She adds that the injuries are probably underreported.

Caffrey says, The majority of patients that our team has seen with these types of injuries have been treated with local wound care. However, a smaller number have required surgery to heal their burn wounds, including surgical excision and skin grafting.

Vape burns can happen suddenly. For minor burns (those smaller than the size of a quarter), Caffrey suggests a cool compress (not ice). Then, each day, gently cleanse the area with mild soap and water and apply a layer of antibacterial (first aid) ointment and a clean, non-stick bandage.

Watch for signs of infection, such as fever, and call your doctor if you notice increasing redness, swelling or pain, or if there is a yellowish or foul-smelling discharge from the burn.

If a burn has the following features, Caffrey urges patients to seek medical help right away:

If youre with a person whos been burned and waiting for help:

Smoking electronic cigarettes is often considered safer than regular smoking. Learn why vaping is still harmful, and why you should rethink taking it up.

If your clothes catch fire, remember the STOP, DROP and ROLL rule: Smother flames as quickly as possible by dropping to the floor where you are, covering your face, and rolling over and over, focusing on the area thats burning.

Do not run or wave your arms, and dont wrap yourself up in anything that could catch fire.

If theres a fire extinguisher nearby, use it. Immediately cool the area with water and make sure the fire hasnt spread.

Vaping and e-cigarettes are sometimes promoted as ways to help cigarette smokers quit. But what about the reverse? Can vaping lead to regular cigarette smoking later on?

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How to Treat a Burn from a Vape Pen | Johns Hopkins Medicine

Marketers are targeting teens with cheap and addictive vapes: 9 ways to stem rising rates of youth vaping  The Conversation

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Marketers are targeting teens with cheap and addictive vapes: 9 ways to stem rising rates of youth vaping - The Conversation

Vaping gets a lot of bad press. Although we hear occasional positive reports about the health benefits of electronic cigarettes, theyre generally overwhelmed by coverage of hypothetical risks and exaggerated dangers. Its not easy to find the facts about vaping.

Recently, 15 past presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) co-authored a paper in the American Journal of Public Health arguing that vapings potential positive effect on public health is being ignored or twisted by powerful interests and lobbying groups.

Even top scientists and researchers in relevant fields are ignored when their research doesnt align with the popular message (that vaping is just as bad smoking, if not worse). That makes things really confusing!

This article can bring some clarity and simplicity to the topic with a healthy dose of real-world advantages. So what are the actual pros and cons of vaping? Lets get to it.

1. Its safer than smoking: The British Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England, and American National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, all agree that vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes. PHE says vaping is at least 95% less harmful. Because there is no combustion in vaping, there is no smoke, and smoke is what creates the tar and carbon monoxide that lead to most of the long-term health damage from smoking. The health benefits of being smoke-free include improved lung and heart function, and even better senses of smell and taste.

2. No noxious odors: One of the biggest advantages of vaping is that you and your clothes, house and car wont smell of smoke anymore. Vaping has an aroma, but its a long way from the smell of stale smoke and cigarette butts. In fact, even tobacco-flavored vapes dont smell anything like burning tobacco. To a lot of people, the smell of vapor is barely noticeable. You might even get compliments!

3. Control over nicotine intake: Vaping gives you full control over your nicotine dosage. E-juice is available in a variety of strengths, ranging from nicotine-free to high-strength nicotine. You can choose exactly how much nicotine is in your vapeor use no nicotine at all. Most vapers tend to start off with high nicotine levels and gradually work their way down to lower strengths, or even eliminate nicotine completely.

4. Control over vapor output: Vaping gives you control over the amount of vapor you exhale, which is a major part of the experience. Some vapers prefer smaller devices like pod vapes for convenience and low vapor volume, and others like high-powered mods for cloud chasing. Adjusting the power output, airflow, and coil type lets you further fine tune your vapor volume, which affects the flavor too. You can be subtle and stealthy, or as showy as you like, depending on how you choose to vape.

5. Flavors for every palate: There are virtually endless flavor options to choose from in e-juice. Some of the most popular flavor categories are fruit, desserts, beverages, mint and menthol, and tobacco. And if you dont like whats available commercially, you can make your own vape juice!

6. Instant satisfaction: Although advanced vapes may require initial tinkering, there are lots of simpler products that come prefilled and ready to use. Either way, once the vape is ready, taking a hit is as simple as pushing a button or drawing on the device (some have an automatic draw). While all vaping devices need a charged battery and e-juice to continue working, the average vape can sustain you throughout the day with no maintenance or upkeep.

7. Price points for every wallet: The vaping market is large and competitive. There are lots of products in every price rangefrom 10 dollars to hundredsthat can suit almost any user. Whether you want a simple disposable e-cig, or a sophisticated vape mod and premium e-liquid, theres a vape out there that you can start using today.

8. No experience needed: Sure, you can make a hobby of collecting vaping gear or learning how to build your own coils, but you can also have a great vaping experience immediately as a beginner. Between beginner starter kits and simple pod vapes, there are lots of quality vaping products that require no previous experience.

9. Access and availability: These days, you can find good vapor products in vape shops, convenience stores, gas stations, and even smoke shops. There are also online vape shops that will ship vaping products right to your front door.

1. Too many choices: To a new vaper, or a smoker considering a change, the endless options presented by the vaping market can be overwhelming. With cigarettes, you choose a brand and light up, but with vaping there are literally millions of possible choices. Thats why its best to point the vape-curious toward easy-to-use products with simple instructions to get started, and then to good sources of further information (vape shops, forums, experienced vapers) as new vapers learn the finer points.

2. The vape learning curve: Maybe the biggest danger for a new vaper is buying a product that requires specialized knowledge. Often they wind up confused and frustrated, and regret trying to switch to vaping. Again, there is no need for a long learning curve! Simple starter products are almost always the best first choice.

3. Potential health risks: Its true that vaping is too new for us to understand every potential risk it could pose. But if youre using vaping to stay off cigarettes, you can rest easier knowing that youve distanced yourself from the well-documented dangers of smoking. The substances in cigarette smoke that make it uniquely harmful are either entirely absent from e-cig vapor or only present in tiny amounts. That makes it much safer for vapers, and also for bystanders subject to secondhand vapor.

4. Vapers face smoking stigma: For almost 60 years, tobacco control has focused on smoking denormalization, which is just a fancy word for stigmatizing smoking and smokers. Now the same drug war-style campaign to dehumanize people who smoke is being turned against vapers too. Because vaping looks like smoking to people who do neither, smokers who switch to safer vaping products are often disheartened to discover they face the same stigmatization, rooted in ignorance, fear and intolerance.

5. Vaping is perceived as a youth problem: Because of the endless news stories about a teen vaping epidemic, older smokers may shy away from vaping as a way to quit smoking. The fact is that adults of every age vapeand the legal age to buy vapes is 21but for those coming to e-cigarettes now, soon after the JUUL panic era, it may not be easy to separate the harm reduction benefits of vaping from the adolescent fad perception.

6. Nicotine misinformation: Nicotine is probably as misunderstood as any drug in the world. Its really just a mild stimulant that has effects similar to caffeine. But because its history is inevitably tied to smokinga highly dangerous delivery mechanismnicotine has a terrible reputation. Nicotine doesnt cause cancer or heart disease, but many people mix up the effects of nicotine and smoking, including doctors that regularly treat lifelong smokers. Nicotine actually can offer health benefits for many users.

7. Restrictive laws and rules: Based mostly on the vaping epidemic promoted by anti-vaping organizations, vaping has become a ripe target for laws and regulations that reduce vaping choices, availability and cost. More than half of American states have taxes on vaping products, and Congress recently passed a law banning U.S. Postal Service delivery of vaping products. Some states have banned vape products in flavors other than tobacco.

8. FDA regulations may eliminate vaping choices: The biggest government threat to vaping may be the Food and Drug Administrations Premarket Tobacco Application (PMTA) process. Manufacturers wishing to keep their products on the market were forced last fall to submit complex applications to prove the products are appropriate for the protection of public health. Experts believe the FDA will use the PMTA process to wipe many of the best vaping products off the market. (Cigarettes were grandfathered onto the market without having to submit PMTAs, by the way.)

9. Finding the truth about vaping isnt easy: Vaping is a disruptive technology that threatens the tobacco industry, but it also threatens the powerful anti-smoking industry. It can be very hard for a smoker or new vaper to separate the lies from the truth about vaping, since these powerful foes advance their narratives in every kind of news outlet and even through allied federal agencies. Because there are lots of frightening stories about vaping. Its easy to get scared away.

By now you should have a better understanding about the pros and cons of vaping. There are a number of points on both sides. But if you consider that vaping is an alternative to smoking, it should be obvious that its the best choice of the two. Although vaping is not the only way to combat cigarette addiction, all the other choices have pros and cons as well.

Vaping is successful because it offers nicotine and a smoking-like experience, but without the combustion products that make smoking deadly. But vaping isnt perfect, and its not the answer for everyone. Whatever you decide, at least do it with a clear sense of the benefits and the downsides of vaping.

Continued here:

9 Pros and Cons of Vaping to Know Before Starting - Vaping360

The rising popularity of vaping has been dramatic, especially amongteenagers. According toa 2019 study, about 37% of high school seniors reported vaping in 2018, up from 28% the year before. An estimated 2.1 million middle school and high school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2017; that numberjumped to 3.6 million in 2018. A more recent survey found that among high school seniors, more than 40% had tried e-cigarettes. Certainly, age restrictions its illegal to sell e-cigarettes to anyone under 21 (18 or 19 in some states) arent preventing use among teens and young adults. And more than nine million adults 18 or older use e-cigarettes, according toa 2020 survey by the CDC.

E-cigarettes use a battery-powered device that heats a liquid to form vapors or, more accurately, aerosol that the user can inhale (thus "vaping"). These devices heat up various flavorings, nicotine, marijuana, or other potentially harmful substances. Nicotine is addictive, of course. And while that fact is prominently displayed in advertising, we know from experience with regular cigarettes that warnings dont always work!

You may have seen news reports of sudden and severe lung problems, including deaths, linked to vaping. This condition is called e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury, or EVALI.

According to the CDC:

Its not entirely clear how often vaping might lead to lung trouble or who is at highest risk. For example, are lung problems more common among vapers who already have breathing problems (such as asthma) or who smoke other substances, such as regular cigarettes or marijuana? Is it more common among younger individuals?

The tragic and alarming cases of severe lung disease are clearly cause for concern. A number of other health effects are also worrisome:

How vaping affects ouroverallhealth is uncertain. However, there appears to be ample evidence that vaping is not "95% less harmful than smoking" as some have claimed.

In addition to whatever enjoyment vaping brings, some evidence suggestsvaping helps some people stop smoking (though other evidence suggests otherwise). How it compares to a nicotine patch or other methods of smoking cessation is not clear. So far, the FDA has not approved vaping as a method of smoking cessation. And many smokers who vapecontinue to use both cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

The true balance between the benefits and risks of vaping remains impossible to assess. We dont always know whats in e-cigarettes. The FDA, which is responsible for authorizing or approving tobacco products, authorized marketing of a few e-cigarette products in 2021 and has denied many others; but, as noted by the agency, these actions "do not mean these products are safe or FDA approved." And, there is no information available about their long-term health impact.

Perhaps vaping should be viewed as a "lesser of evils" for current cigarette smokers. Still, its clear that there is a lot about vaping we dont know. One way well learn more is by people reporting possible vaping-related health problems to the FDA you canlet them knowif youve had such problems.

Until we know more, think twice about vaping. Federal and state authorities recommend avoiding all vaping until more is known. If you do decide to vape, avoid e-cigarettes bought "off the street" and stick with brand name e-cigarette products without modification (such as adding marijuana or other drugs).

These cases of severe lung disease among people who vape raise important questions about the safety of vaping. Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised that lung problems might develop in people who vape: our lungs were meant to inhale clean air and nothing else. It took many years to recognize the damage cigarettes can cause. We could be on a similar path with vaping.

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The rest is here:

Can vaping damage your lungs? What we do (and dont) know