We are seeing more people smoking electronic cigarettes. This is not news but definitely sees a mixed reaction to both proponents and opposition to electronic cigarettes. Statistics gathered by Ecig-Reviews.net showed that there has been an increase of usage of electronic cigarettes among the youth. The Oklahoma Youth Tobacco Survey said that 7.8 percent of high school students and 2.7 percent of middle school students have used electronic cigarettes in the past month.
Anti-tobacco advocates are worried about the rise in usage. They cited the accessibility and affordability as the main reasons why electronic cigarette use is on the upswing. They say that it poses tremendous danger to the kids as a result.
It seems that it is pretty easy to buy electronic cigarettes in Oklahoma. While most vaping shops do not sell vapes to under-aged people, there is no law in Oklahoma that restricts the sales only to adults. Apparently, the kids are riding on the lack of exposure of electronic cigarettes to the regulatory wringer as the reason for the increased usage.
Morally, vaping outlets and vape shops have an obligation to restrict sales on minors. It is simply not right to sell objects such as vapes to minors even if there is no law governing it. Both vaping enthusiasts and anti-tobacco advocates feel that there is a need to restrict sales to the young people trying to vape.
Vapes are primarily designed to help people get their nicotine in the safest way possible. The design philosophy of vapes is aimed for people that are already smoking traditional cigarettes and possibly help smokers quit.
And there are reasons to believe that electronic cigarettes are effective tools to lower people’s exposure to harmful chemicals and even help quit smoking. Studies show that 51 percent of people that used vapes have toned down their usage of tobacco as 21 percent of people that have used electronic cigarettes for the past year were able to quit smoking.
People that have been using vapes swear that their lung function has improved compared to their condition when they are still smoking conventional cigarettes with tobacco. Tobacco has been killing millions of people worldwide for the longest time. It contains chemicals that can cause illness and harm the health. Tobacco smoke carries about 70 chemicals that are known carcinogens which when exposed for a long period of time can cause different kinds of cancer. Not only that. Second-hand smoke kills more than half a million people worldwide each year. The smoke that smokers release to the air also affects the lungs and the health of other people nearby.
Yet despite the health benefits of vapes, even pro-vapes believe that the product is not appropriate for people under the age of 18. Electronic cigarettes are relatively new and there are not much known about the product. Most of the information and safety tests about the product only show short-term effects. The world remains clueless on the long-term effects of electronic cigarettes to the body. This is why some opposition is cautious in green lighting the use of vapes for quitting purposes.
The use of electronic cigarettes remains a hot topic for debate. What is clear is that there are a lot of benefits that it can provide. It is imperative that research should already focus on the long-term effects of vapes so that it can already help people get over their nasty habits.