Vaping products designed to wean smokers off of tobacco have instead become yet another source of addiction for some people, even those who never smoked cigarettes. While vapes and e-cigarettes were marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking regular tobacco, researchers say that may not be the case. And with fruit flavors and catchy titles, vaping is drawing a record number of middle and high school kids to the habit.

According to the American Lung Association, many teens do not realize the amount of nicotine that is in Juul products. A single Juul pod is equivalent in nicotine to an entire pack of cigarettes. Many vapes allow people to be discrete, meaning some kids are reportedly vaping and school, and not getting caught. According to Cathy Wyatt, the Associate Director of Outreach Education at IU’s Health Center is being brought in by some middle and high schools around Bloomington to coach them on how to spot the products and help students with the addiction early on.

This epidemic is becoming just as problematic as the tobacco epidemic was in past generations, and it is essentially causing a risk of re-normalizing smoking behavior, and many of the students on IU’s campus are no exception to this. IU senior, Emma Gottlieb, bought a Juul, a device similar to the one pictured above, in 2017 when she was a freshman. Now almost four years later she is seeing the detrimental effect this could have on her health, and how hard the habit is to break. And although she said that she had never smoked much before, she now finds herself worried about the possible effects the long term use of the Juul and other vape products could have on her. The norm of using these nicotine products on IU’s campus is part of the reason why students find themselves struggling to quit.

There are hundreds of vape products on the market, each one claiming to have better health benefits than others, but the reality is that the FDA has very specific rules for the regulation of these products, and many of the products on the market lack the FDA approval. The FDA and even warned Juul that they needed to stop saying that their product was modified risk compared to tobacco. These products have become popular and addictive among a large range of people, and it is not expected to stop anytime soon. It has been considered an epidemic for over a year with an emphasis on the addiction affecting young people.

 

The popularity and desensitization of vaping in society combined with the strategic marketing behind these products have caused this epidemic to grow tremendously, both on IU’s campus and all around the world. Wyatt said that a lot of the time students who come to her admit to smoking up to two pods in one weekend because they were partying and it does not register to people as a harmful product. She also discusses the idea that the companies that came up with this product probably did not have the intention of actually helping people quit, because that would not benefit their profit, which is why so many people are finding themselves highly addicted to these products. There are many resources available to help if you feel you may be suffering from nicotine addiction, including the free resources available at IU’s Health Center. To make an appointment call 812-855-8230 or email quitnow@indiana.edu.