Every High School teacher I talk to tells me how often they see teens vaping. The minute the bell rings and they reach the parking lot, they start.
This generation seems to have stopped smoking cigarettes but have picked up this habit which is not healthy either and has it’s own set of very real problems.
Teens That Vape
Teens that vape are not just inhaling flavor, they’re inhaling:
- Toxic chemicals linked to cancer and heart disease
- Nicotine
You can vape without tobacco but there is still plenty of nicotine inside regardless. In fact, in the most popular product, the JUUL, one pod the same amount of nicotine as a whole pack of cigarettes.
Teens think that if it says tobacco free that there is no nicotine but that is completely wrong.
The Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University completed a study on 517 kids aged 12-21 found that 40% of teens who thought they were using nicotine-free products had positive urine sample tests.
Is Nicotine Bad for You?
Absolutely. Nicotine is not only highly addictive but it severely effects brain development. It can also cause you to lose focus and change your mood.
“Nicotine also changes the way synapses are formed, which can harm the parts of the brain that control attention and learning.”
The bottom line here, is that teens often think that vaping is harmless but they are absolutely wrong.
It’s important to make sure they understand how harmful vaping is and that the look at it in the same way they look at smoking.
The Surgeon General has a great Parent Tip Sheet to help walk you through talking about this subject with your kids in a natural way.
Even if you don’t think your kids are vaping, these are important conversations to have.
Have you talked to your kids about vaping?
Liz is a just a mom trying to keep it real about how little she sleeps, how often she gets puked on and how much she loves them. You can find her here every day writing about real-mom moments.
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