Essay Example about E-cigarettes
Why are e-cigarettes a lucrative 2.5 billion dollar business? (U.S. Surgeon General) Because the companies involved take advantage of teens by promoting a dangerous and addictive product. In 2015, 16 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes, and it has only gone up since then (Rosenberg, Alec). Teenagers are the main consumers of e-cigarettes because they are the most vulnerable demographic, and successful e-cigarette companies know this. E-cigarette companies deceptively market e-cigarettes to teenagers in a way that makes them seem normal and healthy, which is simply not true. Legislation should be enacted on e-cigarettes for teens because they can actually have long-term consequences, do not help with addiction, are especially harmful to teens, and are misunderstood by them.
The main selling point of e-cigarettes is that they alleviate addiction, but the opposite of that is true for many people. A study showed that the majority of adults who use e-cigarettes to help with cigarette addiction end up using both e-cigarettes and real cigarettes (CDC). It makes sense that if adults who are using traditional cigarettes start using e-cigs to help but can not stop using either, then teens who start using e-cigarettes will not be likely to stop as well but rather continue if not use other potentially more drugs too. It has even been proven that traditional cigarettes are very likely to be used by teens who vape (Shmerling, Robert). A lot of this is probably because many teens legitimately do not know what is in the cigarettes that they use, this is definitely due in part to many e-cigarettes being falsely marketed as having no nicotine (CDC). If teens who try e-cigs do it because they think it will help them with pre-existing addictions do not know that e-cigs contain nicotine, then it will just create another addiction problem for them.
Teenagers have many preconceived notions about E-cigarettes because they do not understand them. Teens often believe that e-cigarettes use water or water vapor when they actually use aerosols (Rosenberg, Alec). Some teens also might not understand that e-cigarettes can contain nicotine, or that the ingredients used for the flavoring can be harmful (Rosenberg, Alec). Teenagers are not the only ones who do not fully understand e-cigarettes though, experts are also still trying to figure them out as well because e-cigs have not been around for that long and they have already found evidence to suggest that they can have many negative health ramifications (John Hopkins). If there is a lot of enigma surrounding the effects of e-cigarettes, then it would be wise to ban them until we are able to establish a consensus on how unhealthy they are the same way we have with traditional cigarettes.
The effects of any drug are especially damaging for young people, and e-cigarettes are no exception. Of about 200 e-cigarette users that developed severe lung disease in 2019, the majority of those cases were among teens and young adults, and the numbers keep rising (Shmerling, Robert). More and more kids are falling victim to e-cigarettes because of how much nicotine they contain despite being advertised as having little to no nicotine (Shmerling, Robert). Teens are also more likely to start vaping because e-cigs affect teens exclusively in a cultural way: a lot of teens who vape do it because they think it is cool (Rosenberg, Alec). E-cigs being deceptively marketed and seen as cool are both factors in making teens think e-cigarettes are benign alternatives to real cigarettes, but teens are actually three to four times more likely to start using traditional cigarettes if they begin using e-cigarettes (Rosenberg, Alec). Traditional cigarette use comes with even more negative health impacts than e-cigs, but e-cigarettes are what cause some teens to start trying traditional cigarettes when if they could not have gotten e-cigs in the first place, then they probably would not have tried traditional cigarettes due to their stigma and the background knowledge they have on them. E-cigarette use is an issue that explicitly affects teens more than any other demographic, so we should try to find a way to fix that.
E-cigarette advocates say that e-cigarettes should not be banned for teenagers because they are beneficial alternatives to normal cigarettes. While e-cigarettes are known to generally contain fewer toxic chemicals than traditional cigarettes (Shmerling, Robert), and are supposed to be a tool for helping with addiction, e-cigs are not beneficial to teens and should be banned for them because e-cigs carry many long term negative health effects and many smokers who begin to vape will continue using traditional cigarettes (Shmerling, Robert). Teens do not always understand what is in e-cigarettes so they do not know what they are getting into. Even experts do not know much about the long-term health impact of e-cigs, which is a great reason to ban them for teens since they are young. E-cigarettes are not actively regulated by the FDA despite their position being that they are not safe for teens and young adults (the primary consumer of e-cigarettes) and they have also not approved e-cigs as a method to help people stop smoking (Shmerling, Robert). The CDC believes that e-cigarettes only have the potential to help adult smokers (Shmerling, Robert). The e-cigarette companies make it hard for teens to avoid e-cigarettes because of the way they market their products. Essentially, e-cigs offer a new problem for teens more than it does a solution to an existing problem.
One of the main reasons that it would make sense to ban e-cigarettes is because, like many other drugs, they also have everlasting consequences. Addiction to nicotine is the worst for teens because it keeps them using unhealthy tobacco products (Products, Center for Tobacco). Long-term exposure to tobacco products comes with a myriad of ramifications, like lung cancer and heart disease for example (Products, Center for Tobacco). The brain-altering aspect of e-cigarettes will cause lifelong problems with their attention, learning, and memory (Products, Center for Tobacco). E-cigarettes themselves and the potential for other addictions they create will have consequences on unsuspecting teens that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives. If we prevent teens from using e-cigs, then it will save them from a lot of health issues down the road. Problems are symptoms of other problems, if we have an opportunity to stop a problem before its inception, then it will not have a chance to fester.
E-cigarettes are euphemistic in nature so they are uniquely dangerous to imprudent teens because they take advantage of adolescent naivety. This is exactly why people need to do something about the relationship between e-cigs and teenagers because teens are too impressionable and ignorant to understand that e-cigs are more addictive and dangerous than they realize. They do not recognize that they are the most vulnerable to e-cigs or that e-cigs will not help mitigate any addiction they already have. E-cigs are capable of causing more permanent damage than teens realize, teens are oblivious to how much permanent damage they are doing to themselves when they use e-cigs because they are not concerned about their future. If teens will not protect themselves and their future, then maybe some new legislation will.
