Last year, the Spud wrote a story about the new craze: vaping. Within months after that story was posted, news stories began popping up in the media about people suffering from the effects of E-Cigarettes. What began as a trend among teenagers is now becoming deadly. 

E-cigarettes are electronic devices used to smoke nicotine. They are easy to smoke because they do not smell the same as cigarettes and they fit inside a pocket. They are charged just like smartphones. They come with flavored juices, so they taste better and are more appealing to young people. People don’t have to walk outside to smoke a device that doesn’t smell bad, produce smoke, or make people cough. Since corporations have made E-Cigarettes so easy to obtain, some teenagers have hopped right onto this new trend unaware of the dangers.

E-Cigarettes have been so appealing to the public eye that most people have forgotten what they are putting in their lungs. Most E-Cigarettes still have nicotine in them. JUULs, a vaporized E-Cigarettes, work by inserting a pod into the device. Just one of these pods contains the nicotine equivalent of 20 cigarettes. JUULs are probably the most popular vaping device among middle school and high school students. This may be because they are small, portable, and resemble a flashdrive. Smoking E-Cigarettes is barely different than smoking cigarettes and can lead to the same health risks. E-Cigarettes can cause popcorn lungs, heavy breathing, strokes, heart disease, and even cancer. 

Just in the past year, seven people have died from smoking E-Cigarettes.The centers of Disease Control and Prevention says that there has been at least 380 reported illnesses caused by vaping. Sadly, there is little research behind what exactly is causing the illnesses because we are the research. Humans have turned into guinea pigs and a scientific investigation all because of harmful vapes. 

President Donald Trump has discussed plans to ban non-tobacco flavored E-cigarettes. A newly proposed enforcement policy would force companies to pull their flavored vapes off the market. Companies that make tobacco flavored vapes will be offered the chance to file for approval by the FDA. Flavored vapes would also have the chance to file for approval, but their products will still be off the market unless they are approved. 

Vaping has turned into an epidemic throughout America, and hopefully research will be able to find the real cause of the illnesses before another person loses their life.