The e-cigarette and vaping craze has been occurring now for quite some time. I personally remember when people in high school began to bring various strange-looking devices and would puff clouds of smoke in the middle of class. The variety of flavors was mind boggling and enticing to many of my peers.

According to the FDA's Youth Tobacco Use in the U.S. Survey from 2016, there has been a general decrease in tobacco use among high school students. However, the study also notes that e-cigarette style products are still used the most at a staggering 2.1 million students. Many of the students I spoke with cited the enjoyable flavors and lack of carcinogenic products commonly found in cigarettes as the reason for their using such products.

While, generally, e-cigarettes have been known to mitigate many of the risks associated with chewing tobacco, cigarettes, and cigars, the issue is that many of those using them were never smokers in the first place. This is the real reason that the FDA has gotten involved to such a great deal now in the e-cigarette industry. Anecdotally, I have witnessed many of the people from high school who started with vaping move to using more dangerous tobacco products. It is likely that this is more prominent on the national scale as well. If e-cigarettes are acting as a "gateway drug" per se into the more dangerous products out there, then certainly the FDA must take a closer look at how e-cigarettes have reshaped the tobacco industry. Could e-cigarette companies just be breeding a new generation of smokers right under our noses?

What many young people fail to realize is the danger of nicotine alone. Nicotine is a stimulant that raises the body's heart rate. People get a "head buzz" when they smoke because of the way it interacts with the brain, as well as interfering with how oxygen travels through your body. While some may argue that they no longer have to worry about cancer with e-cigarettes, there is still a slew of problems that nicotine alone drives, and one of the scarier ones is certainly heart disease. Nicotine causes the body's blood vessels to constrict once inhaled. This reduces blood flow throughout your body and essentially ends up starving your heart of oxygen over time. Nicotine use causes one's heart to work harder and is also linked to a plaque build-up. More studies need to be done in regards to the long-term effects into vaping alone, but nicotine by itself is a scary drug to take a chance on.

The public view of vaping is changing now as a new health crisis seems to be arising. As a resident of New Jersey, my state recently raised the sale of all tobacco products to 21 which includes all Juul and e-cigarette brands as well. Now, the nation watches and waits as the FDA keeps a close eye on the e-cigarette industry. Time will only tell how strict new regulations will be.