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Alex Hilbert

Ms. Wilson

English II Honors

May 10th, 2019

Teen Vaping

Teen vaping. What is it? Well there are a bunch of teenagers ruining their lungs and their

brains by inhaling vapor and they have no idea what exactly is in that vapor that they are putting

into their body.Teen vaping is a huge problem going on in this generation. Teen vaping is

affecting a lot of teens, teens are getting addicted to vaping at a young age and it could affect

their health and get them addicted to other things in the future. We need to address this problem

so we can stop teen vaping now so it won't affect the future generation of teens.

One of the specific issue that is caused by vaping is, teens who vape are more likely to

smoke cigarettes. Vaping is a gateway “drug” and it could lead to teens doing even worse things

in the future, especially smoking cigarettes. Some evidence that shows this is a problem is,

“​Teens who had never smoked a cigarette before reaching 12th grade, but who had used an

e-cigarette at least once within the past 30 days, were more than four times as likely to say that

they had smoked a cigarette by the follow up survey (31%) as those who hadn't vaped (7%)”

(​Douglass, Brenda L., and Susan Solecki).​ ​This shows that teens who vape are way more likely to

smoke cigarettes. Some solutions to this problem could be, ​To ban certain flavors that could be

targeted to teens and to ban advertisements targeted towards teens. Another solution could be to
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have employes that sell vapes to card everyone no matter what and if they don't card someone

they should face consequences. employees should also limit the number of items sold and not let

people buy in mass quantities so they make sure they aren’t being sold to teenagers.

Another specific issue is, The effects from vaping are unknown so people don't know what

it could do to you in the future. people don’t know exactly what they are inhaling and no one

knows the effects it can have on you. Some evidence that shows that this is a problem is,

“​Despite the burgeoning worldwide consumption of e-cigarettes, their safety remains largely

unproven, and it is unknown whether these devices cause in vivo toxicological effects that could

contribute to cancer.”(​Teen vaping 'one way bridge' to future smoking among non-smokers, say

researchers). ​this shows that no one knows the effects of vaping and that it could majorly affect

you in the future and you don't even know in what ways you will be affected. Some solutions to

this could be to ​do more experiments and tests on vaping to see the effects that it could have on

people. Another solution is to do studies on people who vape or do studies on lab rats exposed to

2nd hand vapor to see how it could affect them.

One more problem with teen vaping is, teens are getting addicted to nicotine at a young

age and it's a big health concern, it has also escalated at very high rates. It could also affect their

brain in a very bad way, and it can also change the chemical makeup of your brain. Nicotine is

not supposed to be in your brain or body and since teenagers brains are still developing it makes

the effect of nicotine even worse. Some evidence that shows that this is a problem is, “​Vaping is
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a significant public health concern and has escalated at alarming rates among adolescents and

young adults”(​Mastrota, Katherine M)​. this shows that it is a very big health concern and that

many people have started vaping and the numbers keep going up. Some solutions could be to

make​ sure your kids aren't having risky behaviors and to stop marketing products towards teens.

Another solution could be, to have parents check their kids stuff and have schools search kids.

The conclusion is , teen vaping is a new epidemic and a lot of teens are getting addicted

and can have very bad health consequences, there are not any tests so we don't know all the bad

effects on vaping yet but we know it does affect teens brains in a bad way. The solutions to this

problem is to do lab tests and more research on vaping, have parents and schools make sure kids

aren't vaping, stop selling these products to people who want mass quantities, and stop

advertising to kids and teens, they need to advertise flavors and everything to only adults. Maybe

after we make all these changes we can stop teen vaping.

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Works Cited

Douglass, Brenda L., and Susan Solecki. "Teen vaping: time to clear the air." ​Contemporary

Pediatrics,​ Aug. 2017, p. 24+. ​Academic OneFile​,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504054248/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=2fe0543e​.

Accessed 3 May 2019.

"Teen vaping 'one way bridge' to future smoking among non-smokers, say researchers."

Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week,​ 25 Feb. 2017, p. 2217. ​Academic OneFile​,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A481746458/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=9401432a​.

Accessed 3 May 2019.

Mastrota, Katherine M. "How vaping affects the ocular surface: The safety of e-cigarettes is

unknown despite the number of users." ​Optometry Times​, Oct. 2017, p. 20+. ​Academic

OneFile,​

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512185174/AONE?u=ncowl&sid=AONE&xid=a95581d2​.

Accessed 3 May 2019.