Vaping health crisis is hurting our youths
In September, the Tribune published a letter to the editor (“Don’t rush to judgment on vaping,” Sept. 23) that urged the public to slow down in passing judgment on vaping until more evidence became available. As a practicing pediatrician in Chicago, I believe the growing body of data cannot be ignored. This is a pressing public health crisis for our communities, particularly our youth.
The notion that e-cigarettes are not the cigarettes of your grandfather’s generation is a fallacy as dangerous as the marketing techniques employed. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that two-thirds of users, ages 15 to 24, are unaware that a particular e-cigarette product always contains nicotine, a substance that is both highly addictive and disruptive to brain development into one’s early 20s. E-cigs perpetuate nicotine addiction due to higher concentrations: One pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 regular cigarettes.
Counting since summer, the CDC identified 2,668 hospitalized cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injuries (EVALI) across all 50 states, with 15% of afflicted people under the age of 18. This lung inflammation — linked to vaping nicotine, THC or some combination of the two along with vitamin E acetate — has claimed 60 lives. Although the exact mechanism remains unknown, academic researchers hypothesize the heated oil disrupts normal lung function, impacts immune cells and promotes tumor growth factors. Research takes time, but even these preliminary results over such a brief time are astonishing.
Flavors like mint and mango and the misperception of safety have engaged young tobacco users following two decades of declines in the youth cigarette smoking rate. With looming pressure for a national flavor ban, Juul, the largest flavored pod manufacturer, independently discontinued most flavored pods. Although President Donald Trump was poised to act on one of the most crucial public health crises of our time, his administration backed off of a strict, full ban on flavored e-cigs. The suggested purchasing age of 21 is beneficial; however, the lack of a universal flavor ban allows for the enticement of nicotine-naive individuals and their introduction to dangerous health risks.