Ok, so vapes do not have the 7,000 chemicals found in cigarettes, and that itself is a good thing. But does that make e-cigarettes safer? Did you know that vapes contain substances such as formaldehyde, acrolein, manganese, lead, Nichol, and diacytil? Do those chemicals sound “healthy” to you?
Let me tell you about diacytil. It is the same chemical used to adhere popcorn flavoring to popcorn. With e-cigarettes it is used to adhere the “fun flavorings” that kids like particularly, to the nicotine. But now the hospitals are getting kids, and adults alike, with a new condition called “popcorn lung” because the lungs are becoming coated with the diacytil that has been ingested to the lungs. So now vapers’ lungs are coated with “fun flavors” such as, “Cotton Candy” and “Lemon Drop.” How fun is that? How safe is that?
But I didn’t mention the most important chemical of all – nicotine. Nicotine is a poison, an insecticide. I just read in a gardening almanac that nicotine which comes from tobacco is so toxic that it is not recommended for home garden use as it poses a threat to any animal that inhales or touches it. Yikes! And, did you know that nicotine is 200 times as toxic as aspirin or that one drop can kill a person weighing 140 pounds?
Nicotine is known to be harmful to developing brains, compromising the parts that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. And yet, most vapers are teenagers, who start around the age of 13. What are we doing to protect them? Teenagers who vape between the ages of 13 to 15 are 17 times greater than those who vape between the ages of 25 to 24. Unfortunately, the statistics of teenagers who vape lags far behind what is taking place in real time today. My teenage ex-vapers who are clients tell me that “everybody” at their schools vape. Even if that is an exaggeration, what if the numbers are 50%? It’s a crisis.
The most popular manufacturers of e-cigarettes, such as Juul, have figured out how to deliver the biggest hit of nicotine in just one hit off a vape, which is exactly why they are so popular. Ask any teenager, which brands deliver the strongest hits. They all know.
Vaping, like smoking, is all about the need for immediate gratification, getting that dopamine rush to the brain caused by the dependency on nicotine. And recovery is all about ego deflation, setting aside that need for immediate gratification for the greater good of freedom. When ready, let me show you or your loved ones how. It’s not as bad as it appears.