VAPING HAS BECOME A POPULAR, POTENTIALLY HARMFUL TREND
By WVUA 23 Reporter Haleigh Amond and WVUA 23 Web Writer Anthony Zapata
Vaping has been a method to help people quit smoking, but recently it has evolved into a trend among young people. What started as a way to help people quit smoking has now become a harmful trend. Everywhere you turn, someone is smoking an e-cigarette, vape or Juul, but what reason do they have for doing it?
Household name cigarette companies have taken advantage of the vaping trend, said Dr. Alan Blum with the University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences. People might not realize some of these devices can and do collect data on users about their smoking habits.
“Companies like Phillip Morris, which makes Marlboro, are big behind the electronic cigarette that they want to make,” Blum said. “But that company, along with Juul, is making a product that we don’t really know all about because it’s got a USB drive in there. It’s collecting data when you plug it in to charge it and that’s about how you inhale and how much nicotine.”
Jake Ballard, who uses a vape instead of cigarettes, said it’s not just a device for quitting.
“It almost becomes a hobby for people, because they have so many flavors and different ways of doing it,” Ballard said.
Vapes can be useful in helping people to kick their smoking habit, but if the liquid used contains nicotine, people who have never smoked before can develop a nicotine addiction.