Vaping is hurting teen lungs

Created by Zion Scott-Bakken

By: Zion Scott-Bakken

Staff Writer

Vaping can cause serious health risks, especially for teens, so you should really know what these risks are. Fact: the nicotine in vapes are considered to be as addictive as heroin.

One article I found titled “5 Vaping Facts You Need to Know” on Johns Hopkins Medicine by Michael Joseph Blaha, an expert on the topic, talked about vaping and its effects and about how teenagers are getting into it. It talks about how, even though vapes have fewer chemicals than cigarettes, there are still a bunch of chemicals still in them. There are around 7,000 chemicals in cigarettes, and that number only goes down by a small bit in vapes. It also talks about the problems with teens. In the article it said “According to Blaha, there are three reasons e-cigarettes may be particularly enticing to young people” the first being that teens believe it’s less harmful than smoking, the second is that vapes have a lower per-use cost than actual cigarettes and third apparently young people and adults find less smoke appealing.

 In the other article I found, which was made by a student reporter at McKinley High School and titled “Vaping Puts Teen Lives On Risk” by Kelly Chung, she wrote an entire article on how vaping affects teenagers. She wrote about how when you keep using vapes it leads to huge risks and might hurt you or kill you. She also talked about why teens do it. “There are varieties of flavors in nicotine, it becomes highly addictive for people who get attracted to e-cigarettes quickly,” which shows a reason teens like it. She also said peer pressure can also cause vaping as someone might want to fit in or don’t feel left out.

I then interviewed Ms. Jennifer Cruz, who is a high school teacher here who teaches health. When I talked to her, she said that even though it is unknown what would happen in the future if you were to vaping right now; she thinks it will be the same outcome as smoking and the issues that follow it. I asked her what she believes makes teenagers vape, and she said, “Well, teenagers, they think it’s cool or popular or because it’s addictive,” is how she replied. But the most important question I asked was what a teenager who vapes could do to stop. She said that they could try to talk to their parents or reach out on a helpline or maybe they should change who they hang out with because maybe those people are bad influences but you could also inform them of the dangers of vaping to get them to stop.

Finally, I interviewed Eden Aurin Baguso, who is a junior here at Konawaena High School. I asked him what he thinks about when he sees people vape. He said that he thinks they are being unhealthy and flat out thinks it's just not good. I asked why he doesn’t vape. “I just know it isn’t healthy, and it’s super addictive too” is what he told me, and I 100% agree. And finally, I asked if he knew anyone who vapes and what's happened to them. I was happy to hear he doesn’t know anyone who vapes, and neither is he friends with them.