e-smoking

Throughout the years, there have been various things done to protect people from the hazards of smoking. With every drug store, local supermarket and corner store, each and every one of them own some brand of cigarettes. With this product at anyone’s basic reach, many things were done to warn people about the health risks of them. Back when smoking cigarettes was common, no one knew that these little white sticks of tobacco can cause lung failure, amputations, cancer, and heart disease. There were many things done to warn people about the health risks of smoking cigarettes, like tobacco labels, advertising, smoking bans, and high taxes. There still is that small range of smokers but with this new craze that’s sweeping the nation, middle school students and high school students, could mean a beginning to the end of smoking. According to the The New York Times article, “E-Smoking Among Teenagers,” written by The Editorial Board and issued on September 16, 2013, “E-cigarette makers, whose ranks now include some big tobacco companies, are mounting a serious effort to attract young smokers with fruit and candy flavors.”
E-Smoking is a person who uses an electronic cigarette, “…Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that turn liquid nicotine into a vapor inhaled by the user.” E-Smoking is threatening to undo years of gains, gains we have made with people quitting smoking. Little do many people know is that E-Smoking gives off almost the same addiction to the liquid nicotine once inhaling a lot of it, as does smoking regular cigarettes, “…nicotine — delivered in any manner — can impair adolescent brain development, is extremely addictive and can be dangerous at very high doses to people of all ages.” These electronic cigarettes have been around for awhile but recently they have been growing stronger, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an increase in the high school and middle school students they did a national survey which found that, “The percentage of high school students who had ever smoked e-cigarettes jumped to 10 percent in 2012 from 4.7 percent in 2011; for middle school students (grades six to eight), the figure rose to 2.7 percent from 1.4 percent.” The fact that these percentages have gained almost 2-10 percent is staggering. Although, “…they don’t contain all the carcinogens and other toxic substances found in tobacco smoke, and they can often be effective in helping adults cut down on their use of conventional cigarettes.” In some places almost anyone can come in and ask for an E-cigarette, which is why the percentages have been going up for students who have E-Smoked before. It is hard to know how much nicotine and toxic chemicals might be in their E-Cigarettes due to, “Quality control problems at some factories make it hard for buyers to know whether they are getting the amount of nicotine they wanted and whether toxic chemicals might be in their E-Cigarettes.” The main problem with E-Cigarettes is that it will “…encourage young people to start smoking and then switch to conventional cigarettes.” People are advertising E- Cigarettes like they used to with regular cigarettes before it became illegal. “E-cigarette makers, whose ranks now include some big tobacco companies -- have begun aggressive marketing campaigns that use celebrity endorsements and themes that appeal to young people.” States should treat these devices as they do traditional cigarettes, with bans on youth sales, taxes, and indoor smoking. The federal government should speed up its decision to oversee the contents of flavors and advertisement. Overall, these E- Cigarettes are bad news. According to The Food and Drug Administration E- Cigarettes is a “great concern” or the “dramatic rise in usage of E-Cigarettes by youth,” There are still no national regulations prohibiting the sale of E-Cigarettes to minors, so until then only age restrictions set by less than half the states are in act now. But hopefully that may change soon. The New York Times article, “E-Smoking Among Teenagers,” written by The Editorial Board and issued on September 16, 2013, is so compelling to my age range and society today to warn us about the E-Cigarette threatening to undo years of gains, gains our society has made by quitting smoking.