Will e-cigarettes usher in a new tobacco epidemic?
America’s obsession with tobacco was finally on the downslide. That is, until 2010, when e-cigarettes started gaining popularity.
Now the country is flinging lung-first back into a potential tobacco/nicotine epidemic, and health professionals are worried that it’s being advanced by the youth.
Tobacco use by young people is not new, but research shows e-cigarettes are the most popular form for that age group, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse. New studies on the smoking devices show that they could be more addictive than traditional cigarettes and have unforeseen longterm effects on a young person’s brain and body.
E-cigarettes, also known as vapes, are battery-operated devices that contain an aerosol that is inhaled. The aerosol usually contains nicotine, artificial flavorings or other chemicals, and they can resemble traditional cigarettes, cigars, pipes, pens or long USB flash drives.
Adolescents become addicted more easily and faster than adults, and nicotine is “amazingly addictive,” according to “The Dangerous Flavors of E-Cigarettes,” an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article says artificial flavoring is added to e-cigarette liquid to make first-time use a more pleasurable experience.
“Flavored e-cigarettes have been successful in the marketplace; the rates of vaping among teenagers are increasing at an alarming rate,” the article reads. “We fear that the creation of a generation of nicotine-addicted teenagers will lead to a resurgence in the use of combustible tobacco in the decades to come.”
Why are young people so attracted to e-cigarettes? Flavoring and deceptive design, researchers say.
In 2018, more than 3.6 million youths nationally, including 1 in 5 high school students and 1 in 20 middle school students, reported using e-cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 11 million adults in the U.S. use e-cigarettes, according to the CDC.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 21 raising the minimum age in Texas to 21 to buy any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes. Military members will be exempt. Other states with a 21-and-older age requirement for tobacco are Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
E-cigarette artificial flavoring comes from aromatic aldehydes, and depending on the flavor, some may cause more damage than others. Chemicals often used in e-cigarette liquid (isoamyl acetate — banana, cinnamaldehyde — cinnamon, benzaldehyde — almond or cherry, vanillin — vanilla) are not meant to be inhaled.
Though research is in its early stages, there is evidence that e-cigarette liquids could cause popcorn lung, a nickname for a bronchial condition that damages small airways in the lungs and makes it hard to breathe.
Other chemicals found in e-cigarette liquids include diacetyl; benzene (a known carcinogen); and heavy metals including nickel, tin and lead, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Some of the chemicals that are inhaled are known to corrode plasticware.
Dr. Harold J. Farber, a professor of pediatric pulmonology at Baylor College of Medicine, predicts the rate of teenage e-cigarette use will continue to climb as it has since 2001. The only time overall nicotine use among youth stayed stagnant was in 2016 because the Food and Drug Administration ruled that e-cigarettes couldn’t be sold to people younger than 18.
“Up until 2010, we had been conquering the tobacco epidemic,” Farber said in an article by ACP Internist. “This is huge.”
Juul Labs, the nation’s largest e-cigarette manufacturer, has considered opening its first U.S. shops in Houston and Dallas. The company dominates more than 75 percent of the market share and projects more than $9 billion in sales this year.
Juul Labs does not want nonnicotine users and/or minors to buy its products, according to a provided statement. The company supports raising the national minimum age for tobacco and “vapor products” to 21 and has started an action plan to “combat underage access, appeal and use of Juul products.”
The plan included shutting down Facebook and Instagram accounts (and limiting Twitter posts) and stopping the sale of nontobacco- and non-menthol-based flavored Juul Pods.