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What Is Vaping?

Vaping is the practice of inhaling or exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar devices. It was originally sold as a product to help people quit smoking, but it doesn't help in that way. Vaping was introduced in the mid-2000's, so it is relatively new compared to smoking, which has been around for approximately 2,000 years. 

What Are The Effects On Your Health?

Since vaping is a more recent issue, some long-term health effects still aren't known. It can cause a possibly lethal lung disease called Popcorn Lung, or bronchiolitis obliterans, which damages your lungs smallest airways. This causes you to cough, and to feel short of breath. Vaping can also increase your risk to different types of cancer or other serious respiratory illnesses, such as lung cancer, throat cancer, or COPD. Nicotine, a highly addictive chemical, can raise your blood pressure and spike your adrenaline, which raises your heart rate and your risk for having a heart attack. Vaping is also linked to many negative oral health concerns.

What Is In Your Average Vape Pen?

Nothing should be inhaled into your lungs other than oxygen, your lungs were not made to do that. There are many unhealthy chemicals that have been found in vape pens, the most known being nicotine. Nicotine is also found in cigarettes, and it is the main chemical that gets you addicted. Once you're addicted, though, it is hard to overcome. Your body becomes dependent to that substance, and if you try to take it away all at once, your body can go through withdrawal. That is when your body goes through unpleasant physical and mental effects due to the lack of the substance you were addicted to. Nicotine can also damage adolescent brain development. Below is a list of other (but not all) harmful chemicals

found in vape pens:

  • Propylene Glycol - an additive commonly found in food; also used in antifreeze and paint solvent

  • Acrolein - a herbicide; used primarily to kill weeds

  • Diethylene Glycol - chemical used in antifreeze

  • Cadmium - found in traditional cigarettes; toxic metal that can cause breathing problems

  • Isoprene - rubber product used in adhesives and diving suits

  • Carcinogens - cancer-causing chemicals; includes acetaldehyde and formaldehyde

  • Diacetyl - a chemical linked to the lung disease "popcorn lung"

  • Heavy Metals - includes nickel, tin, and lead

  • Benzene - found in car exhaust; a 'volatile organic compound' (VOC)

  • Toluene - poisonous industrial solvent; is added to gasoline and used to produce benzene

Resources - ​lung.org, Gasp For Air Resource

Helpful Websites To Explore

What Is Vaping?
What Are The Effects On Your Health?
What Is In You Average Vape Pen?
Helpful Websites To Explore
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