Final Project
As I looked into the empty space in this cadaver’s chest that once held the heart of a man, I listened to the surgeon explain to my class the consequences of vaping and juuling. She shared how now doctors were seeing a whole new form of lung deterioration. She warned us against these e-cigarettes, saying they caused what they now call “popcorn lung”, a condition that causes damage to the airways in the lungs. As I listened to the surgeon share how even vapes, which are mostly water vapor, can lead to this lung damage, I realized just how dangerous these e-cigarettes are, and how desensitized I had grown to them. More and more teens each year are affected by e-cigs simply because they aren’t fully educated on what happens inside the more they use these products, or they simply do not care because “everyone else is doing it”. It is up to us, the teens ourselves, to urge our peers to stop this participating in this activity before they suffer permanent consequences.
E-cigarettes are a fairly new item on the market. The first one was patented by Herbert Gilbert in 1967, a little over 50 years ago, with his goal being to provide a healthier alternative to smoking. A man by the name Hon Lik was the one who was finally credited with this invention in 2003. E-cigarettes increased in popularity in Asia, and soon spread throughout many countries, finally reaching America in 2007 (Nguyen and Aamodt, 1). Many people began to use them as a way to replace smoking cigarettes containing tobacco, and it was believed to help people quit smoking because it imitates the smoking behavior without the nicotine. Although smoking e-cigarettes are safer than smoking, they have not been proven to help smokers to quit (Fp-Admin, 1). In fact, the FDA has approved many different products to help people quit smoking, and e-cigarettes are not one of them (1). Although many e-cigs that do not contain nicotine, there are a select few that do, one of which being the increasingly popular juuls.
Juul was founded by PAX labs in 2017. They became very popular among teens and young adults because of their sleek design and how compact they are (Fraga, 1). Unfortunately, this has resulted in teens across the nation forming nicotine addictions before they are even of age to buy these products. The 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey shared that there are about 3.6 million middle schoolers and high schoolers selling vape (Hoffman, 1). Many kids have joined the trend simply because they see people doing it at parties and when they’re hanging out. Juul also sells many different flavors of juul pods, which appeals to the user because it lets them get their pick of what flavor they might be craving. One juul pod contains 20 cigarettes worth of nicotine (Truth Initiative).
Nicotine is harmful to everyone, affecting teens and adults alike. It can lead to deadly diseases like coronary heart disease and has been linked to 90% of cases of lung cancer in America (“How Smoking and Nicotine Damage Your Body.”, 1). It also affects our brains, causing mood disorders and the lowering of impulse control. Teens are less likely to say no to or stop using other products like regular cigarettes and marijuana (“Know the Risks of E-Cigarettes for Young People”, 1). Forming an addiction to one small juul can lead to a lifetime of addiction to other drugs.
Juuling and vaping affects social groups in a big way. Kids are being shown that it is the cool thing to do and are experiencing peer pressure to do it too (Truth Initiative, 1). There may be tension is friend groups because a few of the people in the group do not think juuling or vaping is the right thing to do, but the majority does. They also affect our community because we now have teenagers that are nicotine addicts and are not seeking out help the help they need, and it’s getting harder for them to stop (Hoffman, 1). Most times teens that had said they quit returned back to using in moments of stress. The New York Times put it this way:
A harsh irony underlies the search for solutions: Devices that manufacturers designed to help adults quit smoking have become devices that teenagers who never smoked are themselves fighting to quit. (1)
Juuls and vapes have snuck their way into our homes and into the hands of our kids, and there is little urgency among teens to stop this problem.
The FDA is now investigating Juul Labs to see if they purposely advertised to teenagers and capitalized on them. They even tried putting a ban on the many flavors Juul carries to try and stop teens from buying (Tiku, 1). The government is trying it’s best to free the youth of its nation from the grip of nicotine addiction, but it can only do so much.
The New York Times shares the story of a man named Matt Murphy. He learned about juuls at a party in 2016 at just 17 years old, and when he first took a hit of one, everything changed (Hoffman, 1). After a few weeks, he bought himself one, and he quickly became addicted (1). He even noticed it affect his lung health, getting winded quicker than he used to exercising, but he was not willing to quit (1). He and his friends began to call it “Juul lung” (1). Matt said that it was not hard to buy the Juul products (1). The trick was finding convenient stores that looked the other way. He continued to juul as he went to college, and finally admitted that there was a problem and he was not able to stop (1). When he came home over the summer, he had to use it less so that he would not get caught by his parents, but one day his mom came into his room where he had left his backpack open (1). They confronted him, and he realized he needed their help to quit (1). It took him several months, but he was able to wean himself off the juul until he no longer relied on it (1). He shared how now he is able to resist temptation because he never wants to go back to where he was and go through it all over again (1).
With the help of his family, Matt was able to quit. If parents are willing to help their kids through the recovery process and realize that juuling and vaping are still considered addiction, teens may be more likely to stop. Matt had to develop a program for himself where he took hits at certain times and slowly but surely smoked less and less. By taking the product away immediately, the teen is more likely to fall back into it in desperation. The parents should work together with their child to reach the same goal, breaking the addiction.
There are many stories similar to Matt’s across our nation, but most of them do not have the same happy ending. Many teens will have a life full of addiction if they do not learn to stop now and if they themselves do not decide to make a change for their own good.
The American Heart Association has offered several tips to help prevent teens and children especially from falling into the darkness of nicotine addiction through e-cigarettes and juuls in particular (American Heart Association [AHA] 1). This epidemic needs to be attacked in two ways: by the government and by the people in their own environment.
The government has the power to keep kids from getting their hands on these tools. For example, if they raised the legal age of buying tobacco to 21, there would be much fewer teens who can get access to these products because there are not as many 21 year olds in high school as 18 year olds (AHA 1). 21 year olds are also much more mature than 18 year olds and would be less likely to not only buy the product themselves but contribute to the beginning of this addiction of a minor because they would be aware of the consequences.
The government also has power over the amount of marketing and advertisement these companies can do. By restricting how much their ads are seen, especially by teenagers on social media and video platforms like YouTube, it would be much more difficult for them to romanticize their products and make them tempting (AHA 1). They can also counteract these companies’ ads by releasing their own anti-smoking campaigns and advertising those in place of the e-cigarettes. This means that kids will be absorbing information that will prevent them from wanting to start juuling in the first place. It’s better to stop before they even start, because coming out of addiction can be a difficult journey.
Although the government can do a lot to keep the youth from accessing or desiring these tools, the people who can truly change a child’s mindset are the ones in their environment. This includes parents and teachers and even peers.
Parents can instill into their children at a very young age an awareness of the dangers of smoking and drug abuse in general. This little act goes very far, especially by showing them it is not a taboo topic and the kid can come to them to ask questions. By having these conversations, the child can grow a better understanding of the dangers than they could just by government warning against it (AHA 1).
Conversations go a long way, but they are in vain if the parents themselves are smoking and setting a bad example (AHA 1). A kid is much less likely to say no to smoking when they can easily justify saying yes because their parents do it. A parent can also set rules at home, like no smoking, that way visiting family members or friends don’t have the chance to set a bad example either.
Another huge way a parent can help prevent their children from smoking is by preparing them for peer pressure (AHA 1). Peer pressure is probably the biggest factor in the vaping/smoking epidemic. When teens see the “cool kids” juuling at a party, and all of their own friends are doing it, it is easy to normalize it and become dismissive to the health risks they are exposing themselves to. We must change the way the teens themselves think by educating them and showing them that just because they see everyone else doing it, doesn’t mean they have to do it too.
Aside from at home with their parents, kids spend the rest of their time at school. Schools should use this influence they have been given to educate kids on how dangerous e-cigarettes, along with any form of smoking, can be. It can be as simple as posters in the hallways and open discussions in classrooms on these topics. In biology, they can learn how exactly different types of drugs affect the body. In math, they can learn the number side of things, such as how many people suffer from nicotine addiction and even just how expensive feeding an addiction can be. I know for me personally, after seeing how lungs can be destroyed by these seemingly harmless products and how expensive it will be to buy juul pods every week, it no longer piques my interest. Seeing and reading about the consequences makes it more real, and a teen is much less likely to partake in the use of these products if they understand the consequences from every aspect.
Albert Camus was a French philosopher in the mid-1900s who grew to fame due to his philosophical views that would later be labeled as absurdism as those ideas became more popular. In short, Camus believed that everything was meaningless and that there was no real right from wrong (Simpson 1). He wouldn’t have a strong opinion on smoking because he would think either way it doesn’t matter in the long run. If he did have an opinion on it, I believe he would think it’s just part of what he would call “the Revolt”, which is the opposition humans have whenever they feel they are being oppressed (Simpson 1). Teenagers especially may act out or rebel in this way because they feel rules are too strict or that breaking them would be harmless. Camus did not believe in self-preservation, so he would probably not only not care that kids have nicotine addictions, but encourage it since nothing really matters. After all, if everything is meaningless, why not have a little fun, right?
This epidemic will not truly be stopped until the teenagers themselves change their view of juuling. As a high schooler and teenager myself, I understand how juuling and vaping can be tempting, but I have also learned through educating myself that it has many downsides and is not worth the risk in the long run. I have yet to see a change in the way people my age handle vaping and juuling. Right now they are dismissive of the negatives and only care about fitting in, as teenagers always have, which makes this such an alluring offer. Through the government’s actions against the companies and parents educating and having conversations with their kids, I do believe there will be a change soon. Even more so when the generation after us truly sees the side effects and permanent damage this addiction leads to. It is my hope that teenagers will stop associating juuling with being cool and start associating it as a dark path they do not want to walk into, because once they start, it will be very hard to stop.
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