Young Adults Underestimate Health Risks of Vaping

Vaping among young adults is now an epidemic in the U.S., as declared by Surgeon General Jerome Adams in 2018. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaping as a recreational activity has become increasingly popular among teens and college students looking for a brief buzz similar to the nicotine “high” of cigarettes.

Even scarier: many young adults mistakenly believe it’s harmless and safer than cigarettes. The truth is that the nicotine contained in e-cigarettes is not only highly addictive but can cause lasting cognitive and behavioral impairments in young adults. This includes memory and learning difficulties and increased susceptibility to addiction — including addiction to other substances. Young adults under age 25 are especially vulnerable since their brains are still developing.

The Dangers of Vaping

When you vape, you inhale vapor created from a liquid heated up inside a device, namely vape pens, pod mods, tanks, electronic nicotine deliver devices (ENDS), e-hookahs and e-cigarettes. The liquid inside — called e-juice, e-liquid, cartridges, pods or oils — contains a base of glycerin (a combo of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin) along with nicotine and flavoring chemicals.

There are some 8,000 known e-liquid flavors available on the market today — ranging from banana pudding to watermelon to Hawaiian punch to unicorn puke. And while these flavorings have been found safe for food, the jury is still out on whether smoking or vaping these chemicals can harm your health.

Studies have found that e-liquids are rife with organic components often associated with aromas —cinnamaldehyde (cinnamon), vanillin (vanilla), benzaldehyde (almonds) — that have been found to cause the formation of formaldehyde and other cancer-causing chemicals, as well as irritation and inflammation of the lungs when subjected to heat or vaporization. In other words, you’re exposing yourself to all kinds of chemicals that we don’t yet understand and that are probably unsafe. 

Vaping and Addiction

Not only are we still unsure of the health dangers associated with vaping, but there’s no clear evidence that vaping helps people quit smoking cigarettes. In fact, researchers found that vaping increases a teen’s risk of smoking cigarettes later in life. “We cannot allow a whole new generation to become addicted to nicotine,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, said in a press release. Nicotine is a toxic substance that raises your blood pressure and adrenaline, increasing your heart rate and likelihood of having a heart attack.  

Another dangerous trend is dabbing, or using vaping marijuana by heating concentrated cannabis oil, called butane hash oil (“honeycomb,” “budder” and “earwax”). When young adults vape rather than smoke marijuana, they tend to consumer higher concentrations of the addictive drug tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — around 60 to 90 percent — and without the telltale smell that goes with smoking pot through a joint, blunt or pipe.

“This is a very dangerous trend,” Dr. Ruben Baler, a health scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who estimates three million youth are vaping, 30 to 40 percent of whom are vaping marijuana, told The Chicago Sun-Times. “[E-cigs] are very easy to hide. They’re odorless, and they’re marketed very aggressively for kids, whether they have flavorings or high concentrations of nicotine or marijuana.”

Addiction Treatment for Young Adults

At Hope Academy, our young adult program is designed to help you change destructive behaviors and make lasting changes that will have a positive impact on your life and long-term health. To learn more, call today: 866-930-4673.