Many students have seen someone smoking an electronic cigarette in the school bathroom or have smelled the artificial flavors of one. Electronic cigarettes, or “e-cigs” provide people with the opportunity to inhale or “vape” using water vapor. Some main attractions about e-cigs include the many different flavors, which people can trade like Pokémon cards, and they are significantly less harmful than regular tobacco cigarettes. Some believe one can smoke a strawberry or caramel flavor e-cig without any repercussions to their bodies.
 
Many people vape because advertisements promote e-cigs as harmless. It was not until the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health in 1964 that people discovered smoking cigarettes was harmful. Will there be a time in the future where new research finds a significant problem with electronic cigarettes?

Electronic cigarettes have helped smokers quit tobacco cigarettes according to a study from the American Enterprise Institute. The intended purpose of e-cigs, similar to nicotine patches, may have been to help smokers quit; however, many middle and high school students use them despite never smoking conventional cigarettes before. A National Youth Tobacco Survey found the number of students who used e-cigarettes but never used conventional cigarettes increased from 79,000 in 2011 to 263,000 in 2013.

According to WebMD, the nicotine inside the e-cigarettes is addictive. HowStuffWorks states that liquid nicotine is extracted from regular tobacco and can be lethal. E-cigs also harm your arteries over time and could potentially have other long term effects. The Food and Drug Administration found connections from smoking e-cigs to illnesses such as pneumonia, heart failure, and seizures, although they have yet to make a conclusion from this study. Tests have shown there are several different chemicals that one inhales when they vape, such as acetaldehyde, toluene, cadmium, nickel, and lead. A study from Portland State University found formaldehyde in the liquid droplets in electronic cigarettes. Formaldehyde, just one of many chemicals in e-cigs, is a toxic chemical used as a disinfectant. In addition to the nicotine that one inhales when one vapes, people also inhale dozens of toxic chemicals.

Electronic cigarettes were designed to help smokers quit but have led many teens to start using electronic cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes have a reputation that they are less harmful than conventional cigarettes, but could there be future studies that show the extreme harm of vaping? Could teenagers who vape become addicted to e-cigs? Many studies show there is a possibility for significant harm from smoking e-cigs, especially for teenagers.