“A lot of teens get their vaping products from their friends,” says Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin. She is an addiction psychiatrist at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. “They don’t necessarily purchase them or do the research on them,” she points out. And that means they don’t know what they’re inhaling when they start to puff.
Krishnan-Sarin studies teen vaping. She’s found that teens are most likely to use non-refillable (also known as closed system) devices. These small, easy-to-hide products — such as JUUL and Puff Bar — don’t create an obvious vape cloud. This makes them easy to use almost anywhere. In fact, Krishnan-Sarin says, “Kids would tell us they were using these products in the classroom.”
Before COVID (the last time she was able to study teen vaping habits), many teens “were puffing on [an e-cigarette] almost constantly throughout the day,” she says.
That’s a concern. “None of these closed-system products come without nicotine,” Krishnan-Sarin notes. In fact, a single JUUL pod contains the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. Both JUUL and Puff Bar also use a salt form of nicotine that gives each puff a smoother feel. That makes it more pleasure,
- Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. This is nearly one in five deaths.1,2,3
- Smoking causes more deaths each year than the following causes combined:4
- More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States.1
- Smoking causes about 90% (or 9 out of 10) of all lung cancer deaths.1,2 More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer.5
- Smoking causes about 80% (or 8 out of 10) of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).1
- Cigarette smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women.1
- The risk of dying from cigarette smoking has increased over the last 50 years in the U.S.1
The World Health Organization has pulled out all stops to drive home the fact that tobacco is lethal. And that is why they have designated May 31st as World No Tobacco Day. This is the day that campaigns are launched to remind people to steer clear of tobacco. This year’s theme is focused to protect the environment, “tobacco is killing us and our planet”. Tobacco consumption is not just about smoking also about the smokeless forms available as pan masala. It is important to understand that tobacco consumption in any form and any quantity is extremely harmful to our health and our planet
Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.
More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking. For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.
Secondhand smoke exposure contributes to approximately 41,000 deaths among nonsmoking adults and 400 deaths in infants each year. Secondhand smoke causes stroke, lung cancer, and coronary heart disease in adults. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, more severe asthma, respiratory symptoms, and slowed lung growth.
How tobacco damages your body
The chemicals in tobacco smoke can damage your body in many ways. For example:
- Carbon monoxide deprives your heart of the oxygen it needs to pump blood around your body. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs.
- Tar is a sticky substance that coats your lungs like soot in a chimney.
- Kill the hair-like cells in your airways. These cells sweep clean the lining of your airways and protect them against infections.
- Tiny particles in tobacco smoke irritate your throat and lungs and cause ‘smoker’s cough’. This makes you produce more mucus and damages lung tissue.
- Ammonia and formaldehyde irritate your eyes, nose and throat.
- Cancer causing chemicals make your cells grow too fast or abnormally. This can result in cancer cells.
You must be logged in to post a comment.