It is time to pay attention now that vaping can kill
The time is up. With seven dead and 450 hospitalized, vaping is our nation’s invisible killer. Will you be next?
Recently, Americans all over the country have watched in horror as media outlets report shocking data of serious complications arising from vaping. While HHS has answered the weight the matter, the school has not since solved the epidemic of vaping within the walls of the campus.
In fact, teens have been presented with countless information. HHS administration have put up signs in restrooms attempting to discourage vaping but such posters are simply ignored. Any student caught vaping is automatically suspended, and vaping has been addressed at class meetings. The HHS administration has done as much as they can to discourage vaping yet no student pays heed to their efforts
While administrations have enacted measures to curb the popularity growth of vaping at HHS, few people understand the risks that vaping has on their health.
According to a survey conducted by The Epitaph, 60.1 percent of students responded that the school has not tackled the issue of vaping well enough. Now that vaping is lethal, it's imperative that students pay attention to the effect of vaping on their bodies.
The danger of knowing the consequences that have been uncovered just now can place users at serious risk.
Vaping has been proven more dangerous than it used to be. Once a recreational activity, the flavored e-cigarette is now jeopardizing the health of many adolescents.
According to the Child Mind Institute, vaping threatens the heart rate and blood pressure of teens and increases the level of carcinogens in their blood. This is not just another study to discard — there is physical evidence that these vaping is quite harmful to teens.
18-year-old Maddie Nelson is one of several victims who opened her eyes to the dangers of vaping only after she fell into a coma because of her habit. Nelson urged people to put down their vape pens and claimed she will “never touch a vape again.”
Nelson is just one of over 380 patients who have been admitted to hospitals, leaving many doctors scrambling to treat a new vaping-related disease, according to CDC.
Such instances should be enough to alarm young adults from vaping. But the reality is that the media can only go so far as to portray the consequences of vaping. It is up to each individual to assess their decisions.
One of the most prominent anti-vaping campaigns, The Real Cost, is spearheaded by the FDA. The campaign utilizes graphic imagery to represent the health effect of vaping.
According to a study by the National Institute of Health, 88 percent of teenagers report seeing the ads and a little over half report developing more negative attitudes towards using tobacco products.
Despite the wide reach and overall effectiveness of the campaign, attitudes towards a life threatening habit remain unchanged.
Teens have been presented with countless sources of information. Even with the efforts from schools or the media, the wake up call for teens to seriously understand the consequences of vaping must come from within. The issue is not that external sources need to work harder to ingrain the issue. The issue is that until teenagers take responsibility, all that will remain are a stream of shocking reports, each signifying the next life taken from vaping.
If teenagers continue to vape, we could see an outbreak of teenage deaths across the country in an epidemic of unrivaled proportions. Will you be next?