Vaping

I Googled, “vaping” and “death” just now. There have been so many awful headlines lately and so much bad/sad news about folks, many of them very young, who had died horrible deaths from “vaping” and “Juuling”. While it might seem obvious, I never assume everyone knows what I know and vice versa. So, for the sake of those unfamiliar (like me until recently), I'd like to share some information about this important and alarming new trend.

Vaping

The word “vaping” refers to inhaling the “vapor” of an e-cigarette.¹ E-cigarettes include a battery that turns the device on, a heating element that heats the e-liquid and turns it into a vapor, a cartridge or tank that holds the e-liquid, and a mouthpiece or opening used to inhale the vapor. E-cigarettes can look like cigarettes, cigars, pipes, pens, USB flash drives, or other forms.

Juuling

“Juuling” refers to one particular brand of an e-cigarette called JUUL. It’s very popular among kids because the devices are small, sleek, high tech-looking, and easy to hide. They look like USB flash drives and can be charged on a computer. Kids and teenagers are known to use them in school restrooms.

Statistics and studies

There were 212,000,000 articles Google associated with the topic of vaping and death. One, from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), states that there were 34 deaths in 24 states associated with vaping listed for just the year 2019.² As of October 22, 2019, 1,604 cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury have been reported to CDC from 49 states (all except Alaska), the District of Columbia, and 1 U.S. territory.²

A small study published in 2016 reports that nicotine-containing vaping products trigger lung inflammation and lung tissue damage. COPD development is associated with these effects. Both human lung cells and mice used in the study showed dependency on nicotine over the course of the research.³ “Exposure to inhaled nicotine-containing e-cigarette fluids triggered effects normally associated with the development of COPD including cytokine expression, airway hyper-reactivity, and lung tissue destruction.”⁴

My own experience

I think my point is that I’ve been baffled about how, after all this terrible news has been put out there, anyone could continue to vape or begin vaping.

And then I look back on my own experience.

During those 40 years I was smoking, research was finally beginning into cigarette smoking. Studies about cancer and other smoking-related studies were making waves in the hallowed halls of Congress. “Big Tobacco” was beginning to receive deathly criticism from around the country – doctors, lawyers, parents and young adults like myself. And yet – I continued to smoke.

The shame of it all

I came across this passage on a COPD discussion group recently. It reminded me so much of myself and my attitude at the time. “I’ve heard it all about how bad cigarettes were how bad vaping was. I’ve heard about it read about it I’ve seen disgusting movies and commercials. Nothing worked - people coming up to me wearing oxygen begging me to quit smoking. But I was different. It wasn’t gonna happen to me. I was better than them, I knew it all. I had to find out the hard way. I have COPD/emphysema, I was told I had a heart attack. Now depression, panic attacks, anxiety. But I must be dreaming - this could not happen to me. Unfortunately, kids are gonna find out the same way we did.”

And that’s the shame of it all. Fentanyl, heroin, cocaine – all of these substances are deadly and are registered with the laws of all 50 states and the United States as “illegal.” But tobacco, which has been described as being more addictive than any other substance and is certainly as deadly if not more so, is not.

Why is that?