Why Vaping is Bad for You: Effects and Dangers

Vape products have been on the rise amongst teenagers and adults seeking an alternative to smoking. As the number of vape users continues to grow, many health officials are questioning whether or not vape products are actually as ‘safe’ as they are advertised. There have been numerous data suggesting that vaping has resulted in many respiratory illnesses, making them just as harmful as smoking. I want to discuss why vaping is bad for you in this essay. Vape products are dangerous because they harm the body and brain, deteriorate a teen’s academics and family relationships, and entail long-term health risks.

Just like traditional tobacco, vapes release nicotine into the body, which harms the brain and impacts its development. Since the adolescence stage is a crucial step for brain growth, vaping during the teenage years may affect concentration and memory. This is because nicotine affects areas of the brain responsible for attention, memory, learning, and brain plasticity. As a result, a vaping teenager is more prone to mental problems including anxiety and disorders. Studies have shown that intaking nicotine during adolescence can increase the risk of developing psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment later in life. Furthermore, nicotine is a very addictive drug, as a result, long exposures to it will lead to addiction. Heavy dependence on this drug keeps teenagers wanting more. This puts them in an unstable situation where they must vape in order to maintain a feeling. To reiterate, vaping releases nicotine into the body which causes brain development problems and addiction.

Vaping habits can also deteriorate a teenager’s academics and social relationships. As a teenager becomes highly addicted to nicotine, they will be drawn into vape products over school and family. Since frequent vapers tend to depend heavily on nicotine, they will choose the opportunity to vape rather than attending class or spending time with family members. Vaping is not only damaging the vaper’s academic future, but it also affects the bystanders around. When vapers choose an opportunity to vape rather than attend class, they tend to do so in the school washrooms. This is not only a bad influence on classmates, but it is also harmful to innocent students who may accidentally inhale the vape emissions. Additionally, vaping will interfere with family time as an adolescent will use every opportunity to vape, leading to social-family issues. Therefore, vaping will not only affect an individual’s health but also interfere with their academic future and social life.

Since E-cigarettes are relatively new, their long term effects are still unknown, posing serious health risks to the vaper. When vape products were launched in the early 2000s, they were portrayed as a safe option to the public. However, this was only early 2000, which is nowhere near the time required for scientists to study vaping’s long term consequences. In a statement by scientist Blaha, “You’re exposing yourself to all kinds of chemicals that we don’t yet understand and that are probably not safe.” Researches have not yet figured out how e-cigarettes affect health over the long term. As a result, teenagers should not let their ignorance pull them into vaping. The vaping industry also remains unregulated as they are not subject to FDA approval before reaching the consumer. As a result, there are many unknowns about vaping including chemicals, studies, product feature and health risk are unregulated by the government. Therefore, teenagers are not informed about vape products and thus will lead to unwise decisions.

Many vapers argue that vape products are a safer alternative to smoking due to advertising from e-cigarette companies. This is based on the fact that the majority of toxic chemicals found in cigarettes are absent in vape products. E-cigarettes also contain lower concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals as opposed to their cigarette counterparts. This idea is false because the research done by e-cigarette manufacturers is inaccurate. Information about vaping’s long term health effects have not yet been released as vaping is still relatively new. As a result, the e-cigarette manufacturers only advertise facts based on the short term health effects. Additionally, this research is done by the e-cigarette company itself, leading to the potential manipulation of data to portray vaping as safe.

To conclude, vaping should not be tolerated amongst teenagers. Vape products not only contain harmful chemicals, but it may also ruin one’s social relationships. Many vapers argue it is a safer alternative to smoking, however, vaping is just as harmful. There has not been much research about vaping’s long term effects. As a result, there are many underlying risks associated with vaping that ignorant teenagers don’t fully understand. Therefore, vaping should not be encouraged as it contains nicotine, harms a teenager’s relationships and lacks long term health effects.

Video Version