TikTok trend exposes health dangers of vaping
TikTok trend exposes the dark side of vaping
Chest pains. Ventilators. Collapsed lungs. Life support. Young people are warning each other about the dangerous and painful effects of vaping by doing what they do best – sharing their personal stories on TikTok.
One 23-year-old TikToker went viral in July 2022 after posting a video about her painful experience from lung surgery after her lung collapsed. Vaping contributed to her health problems which left her hospitalized and using inhalers for weeks post-surgery.
Social media is filled with examples of young people exposing the damage that vaping has done to their bodies. Many are sharing photos and videos from hospital beds, speaking up about the scary health crises they’ve faced from using vapes, and pledging to kick the habit for good.
The tobacco industry aggressively advertises vape products to kids on social media knowing that young people are more susceptible to addiction.12 Their plan? Get the next generation addicted to vapes because new customers mean more opportunities to try other tobacco products.34 Teens who vape are three times more likely to become daily cigarette smokers.5
Tobacco industry organization front groups, like PMI-funded Global Action to End Smoking (formerly called Foundation for a Smokefree World),6 have worked hard on slick PR campaigns to convince people that their vaping products are less harmful than cigarettes.7 The result: a tobacco industry-created youth vaping epidemic.89 Marketing these products as less harmful has already lured far too many young people into a lifetime of addiction and disease.1011
The tobacco industry tricks young people into thinking that vaping is “safer” than smoking, but it only takes some scrolling on social media to see firsthand the damage vaping can cause.8 Young people are fighting against the tobacco industry’s manipulation and deceit by exposing the truth about vaping and reaching an audience of millions.
One young woman, who used vapes for more than four years, went viral with a video viewed 29 million times about being hospitalized for two weeks and ending up on life support.
Vapes have been engineered by the tobacco industry to maximize addictiveness by delivering a highly concentrated form of nicotine – a chemical that is as addictive as heroin.1213 Vaping is so addictive that young users start using more and more – resulting in serious damage to the brain and body.14
But nicotine isn’t the only danger. Vapes contain toxic chemicals with health risks we are only beginning to understand. Vape use has been linked to an increased risk of stroke and serious chronic illnesses, like COPD, heart attacks, and heart disease, and may increase the risk of lung cancer.1516171819202122232425 Vaping is known to increase the risk of heart damage, cause lung inflammation, and induce nausea.232627 Chemicals found in e-liquid may impair the heart’s ability to pump blood and are linked to a dangerous respiratory disease known as popcorn lung.2829
This is the moment to break the cycle of addiction. In 2022, Californians overwhelmingly voted to uphold a law ending the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including vapes, in retail stores, making it much harder for Big Tobacco to target and entice young people to use their deadly products.30 Flavored vapes are still available for sale online in California. Click here to learn more about the law.
There is nothing good about nicotine. Click here for quit support for yourself or to help a young person quit vapes and other tobacco products.
- Digitale, E. Teens vulnerable to social-media promotion of vaping. Stanford Medicine, Scope Blog. Published February, 2020. Accessed June, 2024. https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2020/02/19/teens-vulnerable-to-social-media-promotion-of-vaping/
- Walker JF, Loprinzi PD. Longitudinal examination of predictors of smoking cessation in a national sample of U.S. adolescent and young adult smokers. Nicotine Tob Res. 2014;16(6):820-827. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntu005
- Leventhal AM, Strong DR, Kirkpatrick MG, et al. Association of electronic cigarette use with initiation of combustible tobacco product smoking in early adolescence. JAMA. 2015;314(7):700-707. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.8950
- Maloney J. Against All Odds, the U.S. Tobacco Industry Is Rolling in Money; Profits are booming, despite government regulation, huge legal settlements and fewer smokers. The Wall Street Journal. Published April, 2017. Accessed June, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-tobacco-industry-rebounds-from-its-near-death-experience-1492968698
- Pierce JP, Chen R, Leas EC, et al. Use of E-cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products and Progression to Daily Cigarette Smoking. Pediatrics. 2021;147(2):e2020025122. doi:10.1542/peds.2020-025122
- Global Action to End Smoking. Updated May, 2024, accessed June 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240513184616/https:/globalactiontoendsmoking.org/
- Stopping Tobacco Organizations & Products (STOP). Addiction at Any Cost: Philip Morris International Uncovered. Published February, 2020. Accessed June, 2024. https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/STOP_Report_Addiction-At-Any-Cost.pdf
- Struik LL, Dow-Fleisner S, Belliveau M, Thompson D, Janke R. Tactics for Drawing Youth to Vaping: Content Analysis of Electronic Cigarette Advertisements. J Med Internet Res. 2020;22(8):e18943. Published 2020 Aug 14. doi:10.2196/18943
- Food and Drug Administration. Results from 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey show dramatic increase in e-cigarette use among youth over past year. News release. Published November 15, 2018. Accessed June 17, 2024. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/results-2018-national-youth-tobacco-survey-show-dramatic-increase-e-cigarette-use-among-youth-over
- Kirkham C. Juul disregarded early evidence it was hooking teens. Reuters. Published November 5, 2019. Accessed February 4, 2020. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/juul-ecigarette/.
- Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Flavored tobacco products attract kids. Updated April, 2024. Accessed June, 2024. https://assets.tobaccofreekids.org/factsheets/0383.pdf
- Taylor, A, Dunn, K, Turfus, S. A review of nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes—Trends in use, effects, contents, labelling accuracy and detection methods. Drug Test Anal. 2021; 13: 242– 260. https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.2998
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Health Promotion and Education, Office on Smoking and Health. Published 1988. Accessed April 24, 2024. https://digirepo.nlm.nih.gov/ext/document/101584932X423/PDF/101584932X423.pdf
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking and tobacco use: health effects of vaping. Updated May, 2024. Accessed June, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/health-effects.html
- Bhatta DN, Glantz SA. Association of E-Cigarette Use With Respiratory Disease Among Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis. Am J Prev Med. 2020;58(2):182-190. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2019.07.028
- Traboulsi H, Cherian M, Abou Rjeili M, et al. Inhalation Toxicology of Vaping Products and Implications for Pulmonary Health. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 May 15;21(10):3495. doi: 10.3390/ijms21103495
- Antwi GO, Rhodes DL. Association between E-cigarette use and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in non-asthmatic adults in the USA. J Public Health (Oxf). 2022;44(1):158-164. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdaa229
- Sharma A, Gupta I, Venkatesh U, Singh AK, Golamari R, Arya P. E-cigarettes and myocardial infarction: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Cardiol. 2023;371:65-70. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.09.007
- Bracken-Clarke D, Kapoor D, Baird AM, et al. Vaping and lung cancer - A review of current data and recommendations. Lung Cancer. 2021;153:11-20. doi:10.1016/j.lungcan.2020.12.030
- Fowles J, Barreau T, Wu N. Cancer and Non-Cancer Risk Concerns from Metals in Electronic Cigarette Liquids and Aerosols. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(6):2146. Published 2020 Mar 24. doi:10.3390/ijerph17062146
- Shehata SA, Toraih EA, Ismail EA, Hagras AM, Elmorsy E, Fawzy MS. Vaping, Environmental Toxicants Exposure, and Lung Cancer Risk. Cancers. 2023; 15(18):4525. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers15184525
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Eaton DL, Kwan LY, Stratton K, et al., eds. Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); January 23, 2018. DOI: 10.17226/24952
- Gotts JE, Jordt SE, McConnell R, Tarran R. What are the respiratory effects of e-cigarettes? BMJ. 2019;366:l5275. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l5275
- Auschwitz E, Almeda J, Andl CD. Mechanisms of E-Cigarette Vape-Induced Epithelial Cell Damage. Cells. 2023;12(21):2552. doi: 10.3390/cells12212552
- Tommasi S, Blumenfeld H, Besaratinia A. Vaping Dose, Device Type, and E-Liquid Flavor are Determinants of DNA Damage in Electronic Cigarette Users. Nicotine Tob Res. 2023;25(6):1145-1154. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntad003
- Vindhyal MR, Ndunda P, Munguti C, Vindhyal S, Okut H. Impact on Cardiovascular Outcomes Among E-cigarette Users: A Review From National Health Interview Surveys. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2019;73(9):Supplement 2. doi: 10.1016/S0735-1097(19)33773-8
- American Lung Association. What It Means to be “Nic-Sick” [blog post]. Updated October, 2019. Accessed June, 2024. https://www.lung.org/blog/nic-sick
- Nystoriak MA, Kilfoil PJ, Lorkiewicz PK, Conklin DJ, Bhatnagar A. Abstract 20782: Arrhythmic Risk Evaluation of Native and Combusted Tobacco Flavor Additives in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes, Circulation. 2017;136(suppl_1)
- Allen JG, Flanigan SS, LeBlanc M, et al. Flavoring Chemicals in E-Cigarettes: Diacetyl, 2,3-Pentanedione, and Acetoin in a Sample of 51 Products, Including Fruit-, Candy-, and Cocktail-Flavored E-Cigarettes. Environ Health Perspect. 2016;124(6):733-739. doi:10.1289/ehp.1510185
- Flavored tobacco products 2020, Senate Bill No. 793. Accessed June, 2024. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB793
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