It has been over 60 years since the earliest reports surrounding the negative health implications of smoking first began to surface. Indeed, in 1964, 60 years ago exactly, the U.S. Surgeon General released the first ever report on the health effects of smoking and linked the habit to bronchitis and lung cancer developments. At the time, it seemed that nearly every American smoked. It was often deemed as a fashionable and normal part of living. Over the last several decades, tobacco companies have battled with the government and other agencies over the issue. Many anti-tobacco campaigns have been running in attempts to lessen the number of people drawn to the habit in the first place. Truly, it appears that less and less people smoke cigarettes on a regular basis, and the demand for traditional cigarettes or other tobacco products themselves has markedly declined over the years.
Despite this reality, vaping and e-cigarette usage has skyrocketed over the last several decades, especially amongst younger people and even those who are well below the legal age requirements. A recent article published in late 2023 by Healio showed that every day (daily) e-cigarette usage increased by 7.1% over an eight year period, with only 1.2% of young adults reporting they used these products daily in 2013 and 2014 in comparison to 8.3% reporting this reality in the calendar year 2021. Many companies have targeted younger people by making these products flavored, with fruit, candy, or even chocolate flavored options luring young people into the habit and then causing them to become addicted.
Making this crisis worse, treatments and medical knowledge regarding the health effects of vaping is still quite poor. In many cases, vapes are loaded with even more artificial chemicals than cigarettes. In England, a teen girl aged 17 years old suffered a collapsed lung due to vaping. A hole formed after she reportedly smoked the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week.
