Vaping Is Driving Youth into Tobacco Addiction

By Simon Mwangi

Even as the debate on the safety of vaping rages, manufacturers and distributers of e-cigarettes and similar products are now arming themselves with a multitude of attractive flavors such as fruity and candy. They have also invested in lustrous designs for inconspicuous usage, coupled with promotion tactics that market a ‘cool’ factor from usage and a false perception of safety.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention describes vaping as the process of using electronic cigarettes (also known as e-cigarettes, vapes, vape pens, or electronic nicotine delivery systems-ends). Since 2007, when e-cigarettes began appearing in the United States, vaping has become common.

There’s a generally, albeit erroneously, accepted assumption that vaping is safer than smoking traditional cigarettes. E-cigarettes heat nicotine, which is extracted from tobacco, flavors and other chemicals to create an aerosol that is inhaled. Regular tobacco cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals, many of which are lethal. Since there are numerous variations of vaping devices, it would be prejudicial to clearly explain how toxic or not the contents being inhaled are.

This is because different vendors are trying to outmaneuver each other in a market where vaping is now being projected as the ‘coolest’ way of inhaling tobacco and other substances. In the process, the highly unregulated products end up in the market with completely different flavors and contents which might be equally or more harmful than normal cigarettes.

Lack of education on vaping has supplemented the invalid belief that the practice doesn’t have any severe effects. Many teenagers have very limited knowledge on e-cigarettes. Some are not even conscious that they contain nicotine or other substances, and most believe the vapor contains nothing more than flavor. Even those teenagers who may have an idea that e-cigarettes contain nicotine may not realize they are highly addictive or that they can have serious health effects.

Considering the untamed popularity that these harmful products have acquired over the past few years, parents must engage their children, early and often. Let them know how harmful e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems are, how nicotine changes their brain structure and chemistry, how it puts their lungs in danger and how it impacts their breathing and overall ability to maintain an active lifestyle.  

According to John Hopkins Medicine, there has been an outbreak of lung injuries and deaths associated with vaping. This was such that in February 2020, the CDC confirmed over two thousand cases of e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury and sixty-eight deaths attributed to that condition. The CDC has further identified vitamin E acetate as a chemical of concern among people with the aforementioned lung injury. Vitamin E acetate is a thickening agent often used in cannabis vaping products, and it was found in all lung fluid samples of the patients examined by the CDC.
Truth is that the old narrative from years ago on the absence of harm from tobacco has been rejigged, and the target for current marketing efforts refashioned. Children, mostly teenagers, are the motivation and the tobacco industry is leaving nothing to chance in ensuring that it subjugates this key population to tobacco. It should be immensely disturbing for the parents of teenage children who catch a whiff of strawberry in their children’s bedrooms.

It should correspondingly worry everyone that adolescents who begin using e-cigarettes are more likely to go on to use other forms of tobacco, including traditional cigarettes, and are less likely to stop tobacco use. Nicotine has for long been proven to be a gateway drug to other types of drug abuse. It is intriguing that even in laboratory tests, rats given nicotine end up finding cocaine rewarding. Most adolescent drug and alcohol abusers mention nicotine as their first drug of abuse.

While it is clear that science has not conclusively identified all potential health risks associated with vaping, the existing evidence does suggest e-cigarettes can still negatively affect health. This is a fact that should not be overlooked even when there are antagonistic counter-arguments.

In Kenya, the vaping trend has risen, especially with the shisha ban at the end of 2017. The different flavors available in the market make vaping enjoyable. Also, rechargeable and refillable kits can save a lot of money in the long-term.

Bottom line is that manufacturers of these products have identified a virgin and ready market for their products. And while at it, they will go to any length to shove away any obstacle standing between them and their hefty profits, scientific facts included.