Vaping
Vaping is the act of using e-cigarettes, which were first introduced in the United States around 2006. [5]
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid into an aerosol vapor for inhalation. The liquid used in e-cigarettes is also known as “e-liquid” or “vape juice.” The main components are generally flavoring, nicotine, and water, along with vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, which distribute the flavor and nicotine in the liquid and create the vapor. Popular flavorings include mint, mango, and tobacco. Vaping marijuana has grown increasingly popular.[3][4][44][45]
E-cigarettes are also known as “e-cigs,” “e-hookahs,” “mods,” “vape pens,” “vapes,” “vaporizers,” “e-pipes,” and “electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).” Some e-cigarettes are made to resemble regular cigarettes, cigars, or pipes, while others look like pens or USB flash drives. [7][42][43]
The Juul brand of e-cigarettes, a vaporizer shaped like a USB flash drive, launched in 2015 and captured nearly 75% of the market in 2018, becoming so popular that vaping is often referred to as “juuling.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulated e-cigarettes as a tobacco product since 2016. [7][8][9][51]
Nearly 11 million American adults used e-cigarettes in 2018, more than half of whom were under age 35. One in five high-school students used e-cigarettes to vape nicotine in 2018. E-cigarettes were the fourth most popular tobacco products with 4% of retail sales, behind traditional cigarettes (83%), chewing/smokeless tobacco (8%), and cigars (5%) as of Feb. 2019. On Sept. 11, 2019, President Donald Trump’s administration announced plans to have the FDA end sales of non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors such as mint or menthol in response to concerns over teen vaping. E-cigarette manufacturers were required to request FDA permission to keep flavored products on the market; the FDA had until Sept. 9, 2021, to make a decision. The global e-cigarette and vape market was worth $15.04 billion in 2020. [1][2][6][8][46][49][50]
On Sept. 9, 2021, acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock and director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products Mitch Zeller announced that the FDA had made decisions on 93% of the 6.5 million submitted applications for “deemed” new tobacco products (“ ‘deemed’ new” means the FDA newly has authority to review the products but the products may already be on the market) and denied 946,000 vaping products “because their applications lacked sufficient evidence that they have a benefit to adult smokers to overcome the public health threat posed by the well-documented, alarming levels of youth use.” [55][56][57]
On Oct. 12, 2021, the FDA authorized the Vuse e-cigarette and cartridges, marketed by R.J. Reynolds, one of the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers. The move is the first time the FDA authorized any vaping product. According to a statement from the FDA, the organization “determined that the potential benefit to smokers who switch completely or significantly reduce their cigarette use, would outweigh the risk to youth.” [58]
On June 23, 2022, the FDA ordered Juul, for "the protection of public health," to stop selling “all of their products currently marketed in the United States.” Critics had grown especially concerned about the skyrocketing popularity of vaping among teens and the role Juul’s colorful packaging, flavored varieties, and use of young models in their marketing campaigns had played in this phenomenon. The order included removing products currently on the market, including Juul devices (vape pens) and pods (cartridges). The following day, June 24, 2022, a federal appeals court temporarily put the ban on hold while the court reviewed Juul’s appeal. On Sept. 6, 2022, Juul settled a lawsuit brought by almost 36 states and Puerto Rico, in which Juul was accused of marketing to minors. Juul admitted no wrongdoing in settling the lawsuit, but the company will have to pay $438.5 million, stop marketing to youth, stop funding education in schools, and stop misrepresenting the amount of nicotine in the products. [61][62][63]
In June 2024, the FDA reversed its ban on Juul products and approved four types of menthol-flavored vapes made by Njoy. The approval makes the vapes the first flavored e-cigarettes that can be legally sold in the United States. The move comes amid a debate about whether to ban traditional menthol cigarettes at the federal level. [64]
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 9.7% of current cigarette smokers were also current vapers, though 49.4% of current smokers had vaped at some point. Of former smokers who had quit within the last year, 25.2% were current vapers and 57.3% had tried vaping. Of former smokers who quit one to four years ago, 17.3% were current vapers and 48.6% had tried vaping. Of former smokers who quit five or more years ago, 1.7% were current vapers and 9% had tried vaping. And of people who have never smoked, 1.5% were current vapers and 6.5% had tried vaping. 18–29-year-olds were more likely to say they vaped (17%) than smoked cigarettes, while every older age group was more likely to smoke than vape. [52][54]
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Pro 1: E-cigarettes help adults quit smoking and lower youth smoking rates. Read More. | Con 1: Vaping among kids is skyrocketing, addicting a new generation to nicotine and introducing them to smoking. Read More. |
| Pro 2: Vaping is a safer way to ingest tobacco. Read More. | Con 2: Vaping causes serious health risks, including depression, lung disease, and stroke. Read More. |
| Pro 3: E-cigarettes reduce health care costs, create jobs, and help the economy. Read More. | Con 3: E-cigarettes can catch fire and even explode. Read More. |
Pro Arguments
(Go to Con Arguments)Pro 1: E-cigarettes help adults quit smoking and lower youth smoking rates.
Cigarette smokers who picked up vaping are 67% more likely to quit smoking. A New England Journal of Medicine study found that e-cigarettes are twice as effective at getting people to quit smoking as traditional nicotine replacements such as the patch and gum. E-cigarettes caused a 50% increase in the rate of people using a product designed to help people quit smoking. [14][15][48]
“Smokers who switch to vaping remove almost all the risks smoking poses to their health,” according to Peter Hajek, professor of clinical psychology at Queen Mary University London. [13]
Vaping has likely contributed to record low levels of youth cigarette smoking, which hit a record low of just 1.9% of high-school students in 2023, down from 19.8% in 2006 (the year e-cigarettes were introduced in the United States). [19][20][53][65]
Further, a report from Public Health England found no evidence that vaping is an entry into smoking traditional cigarettes for young people. [21]
Pro 2: Vaping is a safer way to ingest tobacco.
A U.K. government report stated that the “best estimates show e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes.” [16]
“Combustible cigarettes are the most harmful form of nicotine delivery,” according to Matthew Carpenter, co-director of the Tobacco Research Program at the Hollings Cancer Center. [17]
E-cigarettes are safer for indoor use. Researchers found that the level of nicotine on surfaces in the homes of e-cigarette users was nearly 200 times lower than in the homes of traditional cigarette smokers. Nicotine left behind on surfaces can turn into carcinogens; the amount of nicotine found where vapers live was similar to the trace amounts in the homes of nonsmokers. [1][18]
Traditional cigarettes are known to cause health problems such as lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Worldwide, smoking is the top cause of preventable death, responsible for over seven million deaths each year. [10]
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine found conclusive evidence that switching to e-cigarettes reduces exposure to toxicants and carcinogens. Burning a traditional cigarette releases noxious gases such as carbon monoxide. Cigarette smoke contains tar, which accounts for most of the carcinogens associated with smoking. E-cigarettes don’t have those gases or tar. [11][12]
Pro 3: E-cigarettes reduce health care costs, create jobs, and help the economy.
“Promoting electronic cigarettes to smokers should be a public health priority. Given that the direct medical costs of smoking are estimated to be more than $130 billion per year, along with $150 billion annually in productivity losses from premature deaths, getting more smokers to switch would result in significant cost savings — as well as almost half a million lives saved each year,” argues Sally Satel, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. [22]
Grover Norquist and Paul Blair, both of Americans for Tax Reform, stated, “E-cigarettes and vapor products are the Uber of the product industry. They’re a disruptive and innovative technology…Thousands of good-paying jobs are being created by an industry that is probably going to save hundreds of thousands of lives.” [23]
Plus, the harm reduction from smokers switching to vaping could save $48 billion in annual Medicaid spending. [24]
Juul created more than 1,200 jobs just in 2018. A letter signed by a coalition of anti-regulation groups warned that efforts to limit the e-cigarette industry would destroy tens of thousands of jobs for manufacturers of the devices and the stores that sell them. [7][25]
Con Arguments
(Go to Pro Arguments)Con 1: Vaping among kids is skyrocketing, addicting a new generation to nicotine and introducing them to smoking.
Marijuana vaping by teens doubled between 2013 and 2020, and the number of minors who stated they’d vaped marijuana in the past 30 days rose from 1.6% to 8.4% in the same time. [59]
Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared youth e-cigarette use an “epidemic,” noting a 900% increase in vaping by middle- and high-school students between 2011 and 2015. [2]
As of 2023 10% of high-school students used e-cigarettes, the most-used tobacco product among the age group, followed by cigarettes (1.9%) and cigars (1.8%). Teens who use e-cigarettes are four times more likely to try regular cigarettes than their peers who never used tobacco, and 21.8% of youth cigarette use may be attributable to initiation through vaping. [26][53][65]
“The tobacco industry is well aware that flavored tobacco products [such as e-cigarettes] appeal to youth and has taken advantage of this by marketing them in a wide range of fruit and candy flavors,” says Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association. [30]
Con 2: Vaping causes serious health risks, including depression, lung disease, and stroke.
Nicotine use by young people may increase the risk of addiction to other drugs and impair prefrontal brain development, which can lead to ADD and disrupt impulse control. Adult vapers are also more than twice as likely to be diagnosed as depressed than their non-vaping peers. [12][27][28][29][60]
The CDC has confirmed six vaping-related deaths and over 450 possible cases of lung illness associated with e-cigarettes. People who use e-cigarettes have a 71% increased risk of stroke and 40% higher risk of heart disease, as compared to nonusers. Studies have shown that e-cigarettes can cause arterial stiffness and cardiovascular harm and may increase the odds of a heart attack by 42%. [31][32][33] [47]
Researchers who found increased risk of blood clots from e-cigarettes wrote, “These devices do emit considerable levels of toxicants, some of which are shared/overlap with tobacco smoking; and thus their harm should not be underestimated.” [33]
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that e-cigarettes leak toxic metals, possibly from the heating coils, that are associated with health problems such as kidney disease, respiratory irritation, shortness of breath, and more. [34]
Some ingredients in the liquids used in e-cigarettes change composition when they are heated, leading to inhalation of harmful compounds such as formaldehyde, which is carcinogenic. [35]
Con 3: E-cigarettes can catch fire and even explode.
E-cigarette explosions have led to the loss of body parts (such as an eye, tongue, or tooth), third-degree burns, holes in the roof of the mouth, and death. [36]
Researchers at George Mason University found that 2,035 people sought emergency room treatment for burn or explosion injuries from e-cigarettes between 2015 and 2017 and believe there were more injuries that went untreated. They also found more than 40 times the number of injuries reported by the FDA between 2009 and 2015. [36][37]
Airlines prohibit e-cigarettes in checked baggage due to the possibility of their lithium batteries catching fire. In Jan. 2019 a passenger’s e-cigarette overheated and caught fire in the airplane cabin. That same month, a Texas man died when debris from an e-cigarette explosion tore his carotid artery. In 2018 a man in Florida was killed by shrapnel from his e-cigarette exploding. [38][39][40]
The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) found 195 reports of e-cigarette explosions and fires including 133 acute injuries, of which 29% were severe. The USFA stated, “No other consumer product that is typically used so close to the human body contains the lithium-ion battery that is the root cause of the incidents.” [41]
Discussion Questions
- Is vaping safe? Explain your answer.
- Should vaping restrictions or prohibitions be placed on teens? Why or why not?
- While this article focuses on nicotine e-cigarettes, consider the safety of marijuana vaping.
Take Action
- Consider Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association’s take on vaping as a cigarette alternative.
- Learn about e-cigarettes at Encyclopædia Britannica.
- Analyze the science of vaping at the American Heart Association.
- Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the “other side of the issue” now helps you better argue your position.
- Push for the position and policies you support by writing U.S. senators and representatives.
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