Vaping: The Epidemic & The Unknown

You see it on the streets, and you may see your friends doing it. College kids, high school students and even adults are vaping.

Over the summer, I would walk to my internship in New York City and see adults on their way to work vaping. It's everywhere.

Vaping products have been grabbing the attention of students and adults.

While the vaping epidemic started to rapidly spread in 2016, recent vaping-related health scares have been prompting lawmakers to form new regulations, and fast.

Recently, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a health emergency over vaping, and he wants to take action to help with the vaping epidemic.  

Over the summer, the Food and Drug Administration launched an educational campaign to warn younger individuals about the dangers of e-cigarette usage. 

But how did this epidemic and concern begin?

Well, e-cigarettes have been on sale for more than a decade, yet vaping has increased from 7 million users in 2011 to 35 million just a couple of years ago. Quite the jump. Currently in the U.S., there are 14 million nicotine e-cigarette users. 

As for the concern, vaping-related illnesses started to increase this year. As of September 6, there have been 450 cases related to vaping illnesses across 33 states. 

The biggest concern is that there have been six deaths from vaping-related lung disease that started in August. The latest was a Kansas woman over the age of 50 who became ill shortly after using e-cigarettes.

Here’s the thing: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA are still trying to investigate this outbreak.

Health officials are still searching for the cause of the deadly lung illnesses. Some conclude that it could be a bad ingredient, specifically Vitamin E, in the vaping liquid.

CDC’s Dana Meaney-Delman announced last week that the investigation is ongoing and at this time people shouldn’t be using e-cigarette products. 

So what’s next? A lot of politicians and even President Donald Trump’s administration are in the works to ban or create regulations for e-cigarettes. As researchers still have yet to conclude a direct cause, a lot is still unknown as the epidemic rises.