Assignment 16 - Justin Zhu

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking directly causes over 480,000 deaths per year and over 41,000 deaths as a result of second-hand smoke. Now everyone is aware that smoking is dangerous and a serious problem for our society, but the only seemingly effective way being used to combat smoking currently is through the use of anti-smoking campaigns. However, the safer alternative has always been present. E-cigarettes or vaping. E-cigarettes provide a safer alternative to smoking and an escape route for long-time smoking.

Now don’t misinterpret me, I do not condone the use of e-cigarettes by minors, but the possibility they hold in removing or replacing a larger threat can’t be ignored.

The reason both cigarettes and their electric counterparts are addictive is obvious. The stimulant Nicotine. However, the relationship between cigarettes and diseases such as lung and gum cancer shouldn’t be mistaken as the relationship between Nicotine and such diseases. There are other ingredients, such as tar and chemicals such as hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. These cancer causing ingredients aren’t present in e-cigarette juice, but the stimulant Nicotine is. While Nicotine itself isn’t healthy and is considered a drug, a smoker can achieve their targeted “highs” with an e-cigarette without decreased danger for contracting deadly diseases. Not only does this make e-cigarettes safer for the individual, it lessens the effects of second-hand smoking, making e-cigarettes safer to smoke around children and kids.

Once again, I’m not saying you should vape around children and kids, but in instances where smoking does occur around them, e-cigarettes are once again the safer alternative.

Now there are tons of people who are opposed to e-cigarettes to the point they want them made illegal, claiming they’re marketed toward teens through the use of different flavors. However, I believe it’s foolish to claim these flavors are used solely to target teens, as sweeter/fruitier flavors are attractive to adults as well. People opposed to e-cigarettes also fail to recognize another benefit that e-cigarettes provide. They keep teens from smoking as well. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that from 2008-2011 cigarette users in 11th grade staggered around 5.8% and in 12th grade usage was decreasing at a rate of about .5% per year, ending at 10.3 by 2011. However, by 2018, usage by 11th graders dropped to 1.8% and 3.6% for 12th graders.

Finally, probably the most important of all the impacts that can be provided through e-cigarettes, is the end of smoking traditional cigarettes. The New England Journal of Medicine found in a study of 900 smokers, that 18% of smokers placed in an e-cigarette nicotine replacement group stopped using traditional cigarettes for the entire year. 80% of those continued to use e-cigarettes as their main method of nicotine usage. While these smokers are still intaking nicotine, they are no longer inhaling the vicious dangerous chemicals used as a part of traditional cigarettes. As a result, these people are now less likely to contract lung cancer, gun cancer, heart problems, etc. The study also utilized e-cigarettes that contained less nicotine than regular e-cigarettes on the market such as juuls, proving the potential e-cigarettes hold as a practical escape route to smoking cigarettes.

E-cigarettes aren’t perfectly safe, but they hold promise in ending the smoking epidemic as we know it, rife with disease and death, and replacing it with a safer alternative through the ability of e-cigarettes to deter the smoking of traditional but dangerous cigarettes.

Works Cited

“Fast Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Nov. 2019, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm.

Hajek, Peter, et al. “A Randomized Trial of E-Cigarettes versus Nicotine-Replacement Therapy: NEJM.” New England Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, 14 Feb. 2019, www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1808779?query=TOC#article_citing_articles.

Hannah Knowles, Lena Sun. “What We Know about the Mysterious Vaping-Linked Illness and Deaths.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Nov. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/09/07/what-we-know-about-mysterious-vaping-linked-illnesses-deaths/.

“Harms of Cigarette Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting.” National Cancer Institute, National Cancer Institute, www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/tobacco/cessation-fact-sheet.

Office of Adolescent Health. “Adolescents and Tobacco: Trends.” HHS.gov, US Department of Health and Human Services, 1 May 2019, www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-development/substance-use/drugs/tobacco/trends/index.html.