North American teens are flocking towards vaping in masses, and health care professionals are calling it an epidemic. Vaping, which has grown to replace cigarettes, means the inhalation of vapour and nicotine, most commonly in the form of an e-cigarette. Despite federal attempts to curb teen vaping, including pulling Juuls, a popular e-cigarette, off of shelves, the number of users has continued to grow. An estimated 168 000 teens transitioned from vaping to smoking in 2015, and the number of high school seniors that reported vaping increased from 11 per cent in 2017 to 21 per cent in 2018.
To put it simply, it seems that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) efforts to steer teens away from the “health problem of the decade” are proving fruitless, and officials are more worried than ever. But is this struggle really as alarming as the FDA would have us believe?
One of the largest reasons that vaping and Juuls are so popular is simply a lack of awareness regarding its health complications. A study found that of teens and young adults surveyed, young consumers only perceived a 40 per cent risk of experiencing social and health-related risks from e-cigarette usage. This was further emphasized by the researchers, who wrote that “teens and young adults [reported] using electronic tobacco products because they are less harmful or less toxic than conventional cigarettes”.
However, Juuls are far from safe. Recreational vaping including Juuls can lead to concerning nicotine-induced health effects, such as “nausea, vomiting, abominable pain,” increased risk of diabetes, and damage to various organ systems. The over-usage of Juuls, especially given their high nicotine concentration, can lead to addiction. And, most concerningly, more people transition from Juuls to tobacco cigarettes than Juul users quit smoking. To say that Juuls are not as harmful as tobacco cigarettes would be correct, but that statement does not take into consideration the health effects that Juuls can lead to.
In order to tackle the misconception regarding Juul’s negative health impacts, there need to be improvements in public health education and stronger regulations on e-cigarette packaging. Not only is the latter solution imminent, it is also familiar. Regulating packaging has been a staple in anti-smoking efforts that has dated years back. Most importantly, health organizations that once vouched for cigarette packaging labels now have more leverage than ever before since they have been able to successfully push for labeling on cigarette boxes.
During the 1970s to 1990s, voluntary health organizations were timid when it came to regulating addictive carcinogens. They viewed tobacco regulation as controversial, yet, this is no longer the case. Indeed, sifting through articles on e-cigarettes, it is not hard to find arguments in favour of regulation. “The Price of Cool: A Teenager, a Juul and Nicotine Addiction” by the New York Times and “#Juul: How social media hyped nicotine for a new generation” are just two examples.
Yet there is a strong base of Juul users that are aware of the health drawbacks and they still choose to use the product. This number of new users will not respond as easily to effective health education and PSAs. Rather, there is a more effective tactic that anti-Nicotine groups can use to sway e-cigarrete users to abandon their habits: stigma. It was an effective part of anti smoking efforts, whereby smoking became equated to a bad “habit” that needed to be kicked to the curb. This is broken down further in “Achieving a smokefree society”, which describes just how smoking became an antisocial act, which played a part in the lower rates of smoking that we see today. However, it is important to note that, while stigma makes it less likely for new users to engage in e-cigarette usage, it may decrease the effectiveness of rehabilitating current users, who are more reluctant to admit their tobacco addiction in fear of being shamed. Thus, while it is crucial to alter the perception of any kind of nicotine use- it must be done wisely.
The new war on e-cigarettes creates a new public health roadblock, however, it is not something that the world is unfamiliar with. Officials have the right to be concerned, however, they only need to arm themselves with familiar tools in order to address this issue head-on.
By Morgan McKay
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