Over 1.6 million middle and high school students in the United States reported using vape products in 2023, with nearly 90 percent opting for flavored varieties. However, the widespread issue of youth vaping might not be entirely coincidental.
Medicine Professor
Dr. Pamela Ling is a Professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco and the Director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. She leads research on tobacco products and their effects on health. The center explores how industry marketing strategies influence public health. In fact, many of the largest vape companies are owned by the largest tobacco corporations.
Dr. Ling outlines the factors contributing to the rising addictiveness of vape products and the difficulties in controlling them.
Q: How strong are vapes?
A decade ago, a standard vape cartridge had the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, or approximately 20 cigarettes. Nowadays, most vapes hold an amount of nicotine equal to three cartons, or 600 cigarettes.
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Smoking Traditional Cigarettes
In 2015, Juul Labs introduced nicotine salts into its products. The acids allowed people to inhale more nicotine, even at a high level, without such side effects as throat irritation or coughing. It is increasingly being used in disposable vapes, which make them, well, a lot more potent than they used to be.
Is vaping better than smoking?
The dangers of vaping are not well understood. However, it is generally accepted that there are fewer chemicals and toxins involved in vaping than when smoking traditional cigarettes.
Lung Cancer
The observational studies give evidence that vaping may reduce the risk of lung disease compared to smoking; however, for cardiovascular disease, the risks seem almost similar between the two.
There is no conclusive data yet to determine whether vaping poses a lower risk than smoking when it comes to lung cancer. It is too early to have definitive answers on this issue because lung cancer takes 10 to 20 years to develop.
Q: Why are so many people worried about vaping in kids and young adults?
In the United States, vaping is more prevalent among young people than among older adults. This is particularly concerning when it comes to adolescents and children because vap are highly efficient at delivering nicotine. Early exposure to nicotine significantly increases the likelihood of addiction, as the brain continues to develop until around the age of 25.
Q: Why are flavored vapes bad?
It may make them want to try such a product. There’s bubble gum, crème brûlée- even chicken and waffles. But again, such flavors are often enough for teens to try a new product, even if their interest in nicotine is simply passing. The fact is the vaps deliver nicotine fantastically well.
Q. How has the FDA addressed the problem of kids and vaps?
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing a series of legal challenges filed by vap and e-cigarette manufacturers against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its authority to regulate these products.
Food and Drug Administration
When the FDA started regulating tobacco in 2009, it didn’t have the authority over e-cigarettes. It was only in 2016 that the FDA was granted the power to oversee the sale, advertising, and distribution of e-cigarettes.
Technically, all vape products require FDA approval before their market can be launched. Of the hundreds of vapes in the market today, only 34 were cleared by the FDA.
Vaping Industry
The agency issues warning letters to firms whose practices are particularly egregious, such as selling vapes that look like toys, video games, or highlighter markers. But the sheer diversity of vape products and companies’ exploitation of loopholes in regulation makes enforcement challenging. Also, the regulations have been struggling to keep pace with the speed at which the vaping industry is changing.
