Back in the 1940s and 1950s, smoking cigarettes was considered to be cool, sophisticated and suave. The social trend caused millions of Americans to take on the habit of smoking. At that time, it was more of a social fad than anything else. For a few years, both of my parents smoked, that is until it became unfashionable and unhealthy and they both quit.

However, millions more didn’t quit smoking or couldn’t quit, due to their addiction. Tobacco companies continued to lure more people into the dark world of smoking addiction.

Eventually, the dangers of tobacco were made well-known and tobacco ads were banned from television and some other forms of media. States and cities began passing laws and regulations controlling the sale of tobacco products and even banning smoking in many public areas.

Then, someone developed an alternative to hard tobacco. The e-cigarette was born. It was billed as less harmful than real tobacco and suddenly, it looked cool to blow electric smoke, especially among teenagers.

Earlier this year, I wrote two different posts about the growing trend among teenagers to use e-cigarettes, a process referred to as vaping.

2 Million Teens Engage in Harmful Fad

2-Fold Danger of Teens Using E-Cigarettes

Many teens have been sucked into vaping over the claims that it is far less dangerous than smoking cigarettes. Most states have age laws for tobacco products, making it illegal to sell to teens. Many schools and other locations also have rules banning minors from smoking.

Regardless of the dangers, vaping among teens has reached epidemic proportions as reported:

“Twice as many high school students used nicotine-based electronic cigarettes in 2018 compared with last year, according to a new survey exploring teen smoking, drinking and drug use.”

“In the survey’s 44-year history, this was the largest single-year increase, surpassing even the surge in marijuana smoking during the mid-1970s, according to the Associated Press.”

“The federally funded survey, conducted earlier this year by researchers at the University of Michigan, has prompted regulators to press for measures making it harder for kids to purchase the vaping devices.”

Among those who have taken notice of the survey results is US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, as reported:

“The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory Tuesday urging new local restrictions including taxes and indoor vaping bans to combat youth e-cigarette use, a pivotal development given the office’s global stature on tobacco enforcement.”

“The move by Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams comes a day after the National Institute for Drug Abuse issued new data showing nearly 21 percent of high school seniors say they vaped a nicotine product within the past 30 days, up from 11 percent a year ago. The increase, part of the annual Monitoring the Future survey on drug use among adolescents, was the largest for any substance use in the survey’s 43-year history…”

“More than 2 million middle school, high school and college teens use these battery-powered devices to heat liquid-based nicotine into an inhalable vapor. More than one in three high school seniors and nearly one in three sophomores say they vaped at least once in the past year, the new report found. Up to 30 percent vaped for 20 or more days in the previous 30 days, a ‘clear sign of addiction,’ says Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “

“Nicotine is ‘very and uniquely harmful’ to the developing brain, says Adams. It can impair learning and memory for people under 25, ‘prime the brain’ for addiction to other substances and increase the risk they will turn to combustible tobacco just as smoking is at a record low. He cites research showing vaping makes youth two to eight times more likely to use cigarettes in the future. “

“Worse yet, it’s turning children who were the least likely to start smoking into potential smokers, Myers says.”

If you are a parent or grandparent of a teenager, you owe it to your child (grandchild) to make sure they are not caught up in the dangerous social trend of vaping. Their lives and health depend on you!