Steering Teens to Vaping | Psychology Today

One of the scariest aspects of vaping is that many teens and young adults believe it is much healthier than smoking cigarettes. General Barrye Price, CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions (CADCA), told me that is absolutely not true.

“Vaping nicotine and/or marijuana is extremely dangerous because the cartridges contain very high concentrations of these substances, making their use in this way much more addictive than alternative methods of administration,” he said.

Price says vaping is driving an epidemic of nicotine use and addiction among teens and young adults.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), also known as e-cigarettes, vaporizers, vaporizers, and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), are very popular among teens. Experts report that e-cigarettes are the most popular product among teen tobacco users, with 2.1 million youth in the United States vaping in 2023. In November 2023, the CDC reported that e-cigarettes were the most commonly reported current tobacco product among high school (4.6 percent) and high school (10 percent) students. Of students currently using e-cigarettes, about 25 percent use e-cigarettes daily, and 89 percent use flavored e-cigarettes.

Vaporization devices heat a liquid into an aerosol that is inhaled into the lungs. These devices are called vaporizers, mods, e-hookahs, and vaporizers. They look different but work similarly.

Electronic cigarette manufacturers target teenagers

Teens are driving demand for easy-to-disguise, school-based imitation vaporizers with flavored liquids. Youth e-cigarette use is a major public health concern, as about half of students who have ever used e-cigarettes continue to use them.

According to the American Lung Association, the most common reason youth use e-cigarettes is because a “friend or family member” is vaping (39 percent), and nearly a third (31 percent) like the availability of flavors like mint, candy, fruit or chocolate.

Health Risks of Vaping

Researchers say Price is right that many young adults and teens who vape believe they’ve made a healthier choice than their peers who smoke cigarettes. There’s a problem with that belief. Most people start vaping nicotine very young, around age 14. Vaping devices are also easy to hide, allowing for discreet use in classrooms or bathrooms, leading to more frequent inhalations, higher doses, and more addiction.

Other health risks

The liquid used in e-cigarettes can be dangerous, regardless of its intended use. Both children and adults have been poisoned by swallowing, inhaling or absorbing the liquid through the skin or eyes. E-cigarettes have been linked to thousands of cases of serious lung damage, some resulting in death.

According to Jessica Hulsey, researcher and CEO of the Addiction Policy Forum, “Contrary to early claims that vaping has health benefits, we have found harmful ingredients in vape pens, including ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs; flavorings that have been linked to serious lung diseases; volatile compounds like benzene, which is found in car exhaust; and even toxic metals like nickel, tin, and lead. We are still learning about the chemical reactions that occur in vape pens. When the ingredients, nicotine or cannabis, are heated, they can create new molecules and acetals that are not included in the ingredient list or in regulatory testing. We do not have any long-term testing on the long-term effects of these unknown ingredients.”

Vaping can worsen asthma and other existing lung diseases. Inhaling harmful chemicals from vaping products can cause irreversible lung damage, lung disease, and in some cases, death. Some chemicals in vaping products can cause cardiovascular disease and biological changes associated with the development of cancer. Of course, people who use vape pens are also at risk of becoming addicted to the nicotine in vaping products.

One of the biggest public health threats from e-cigarettes may be this: The growing popularity of vaping could “renormalize” smoking. Reversing the hard-won gains of the past in the global effort to reduce smoking would be catastrophic. Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death, responsible for more than 480,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

What do e-cigarettes contain?

People who vape are ingesting a variety of chemicals, some very dangerous and even carcinogenic. Nicotine is an addictive substance and just the beginning of the problematic chemicals that kids (and adults) are ingesting when they vape. There are also nicotine analogs, or drugs that are not actually nicotine, meaning they are harder for the government to control and can still be just as dangerous as nicotine.

Nicotine

Most products vaped by e-cigarette users contain nicotine, which can harm brain development up until the age of 25. Nicotine use during adolescence can harm key parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. In addition, study after study has shown that the younger a person is when they use problematic substances (nicotine, marijuana, alcohol, and many others), the more likely they are to become To continue using it. That’s why so many experts urge young people to put off using alcohol, vaporizers, and marijuana as long as possible. Some experts suggest that nicotine addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to treat.

Most vaping liquids and e-liquids contain 5% nicotine (39-48 mg/pod).

Nicotine and other substances

In addition to nicotine, vaping liquids contain propylene glycol, glycerin, and flavorings. They also contain carcinogens such as aldehydes, heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead, and other chemicals such as diacetyl, which have been linked to serious lung diseases.

Newer disposable devices with a 10 ml container of 5% nicotine (500–600 mg per device) deliver an amount of nicotine equivalent to more than 10 packs of cigarettes.

A Tricky Problem: Chemical Analogues

Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates tobacco products and nicotine content, that authority does not extend to chemical analogues of nicotine. For example, Spree, a recently introduced e-cigarette, contains 5 percent 6-methylnicotine (6MN). 6MN is a loophole for nicotine analogues that the manufacturer claims is exempt from FDA tobacco product regulations, allowing it to be marketed with flavors that appeal to youth and to avoid tobacco product taxes. Other vendors have introduced e-cigarette liquids containing nicotinamide, sold as Nixotine, Nixodine, Nixamide, and Nic-Safe. Manufacturers boast that the substance is “carefully designed to target the same nicotinic acetylcholine receptors that traditional nicotine stimulates.” Government agencies need to catch up on how to manage these addictive chemical analogues. I believe that nicotine analogues should be urgently discussed by lawmakers and regulators, and the FDA should be given the authority to regulate these products in the same way as tobacco products.

Teens Wanting to Quit Vaping

In a creative use of two of teens’ favorite things, their phone and social media, researchers used an automated and interactive text-messaging program to help vapers in the intervention group who wanted to quit vaping. The researchers found that 38% of teens in the intervention successfully quit vaping, compared to 28% of teens in the control group.

Vaporizing marijuana

Cigarette smokers or nicotine users often smoke or vape cannabis as well. Many users of marijuana concentrate prefer e-cigarettes/vape pens because they are smokeless, sometimes odorless, and easy to conceal. The user (“dabber”) takes a small amount of marijuana concentrate, a “dab,” by heating the substance with an e-cigarette/vape pens, producing a vapor that provides an immediate “high.”

Like e-cigarettes, vaping cannabis is becoming an increasingly popular method of cannabis use among teens in the U.S. According to Hulsey, “Vaping cannabis carries significantly greater risks. It has significantly greater physiological and psychological effects than smoking cannabis because it delivers more THC per dose, which increases the risk of negative health effects and adverse reactions such as cannabis use disorder (CUD), mood disorders, psychosis, and schizophrenia associated with cannabis, particularly among men.”

Application

Teenagers and young adults are increasingly turning to vaping nicotine and marijuana, unaware of the dangers these substances pose to their brain, lungs, and overall health. Like heroin, cocaine, or other addictive drugs, nicotine triggers drug-related feelings of pleasure and well-being by causing the release of dopamine. It also causes the release of serotonin, important in suppressing appetite, and glutamate, involved in learning and memory. However, over time, the pleasure fades and the drug is needed to feel normal. Sometimes, cravings can be triggered by the use of alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs. Scientists have found that nicotine addiction is easy to acquire during adolescence and difficult to quit. It is important for everyone to be aware of the dangers of vaping among teens so that we can better educate and protect them.