Children are especially vulnerable to vaping health risks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This is extremely complicated and difficult,” CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat testified at a House Appropriations subcommittee in October. “It’s fatal or potentially fatal, with half the cases requiring intensive care.”

Dr. Karen Wilson, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium, told Insider.com that young people who become addicted to nicotine could have “neurodevelopmental consequences.”

Vaping health risks making headlines recently include a mysterious lung disease that has affected 1,604 people and resulted in 34 deaths, as of Oct. 22, 2019.

Dr. Wilson explained that the teenage brain is constantly creating new synapses, which are links between brain cells that help young people learn new skills. A young person who vapes is interfering with the creation of those synapses.

When the developing young brain is exposed to addictive substances, the child may fight serious addictions as an adult, Dr. Wilson said.

Children Don’t Understand Vaping Health Risks

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 66 percent of teens believed their vaping cartridge only contained flavoring. Just 13.2 percent knew they were inhaling nicotine.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one in 11 eighth grade students has vaped in the past month, according to data from the 2019 Monitoring the Future survey of eighth, 10^th and 12^th graders. Overall, the number of teens in these grades who have vaped in the past 30 days has doubled in just a year.

“With 25% of 12th graders, 20% of 10th graders and 9% of eighth-graders now vaping nicotine within the past month, the use of these devices has become a public health crisis,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, the agency’s director. “These products introduce the highly addictive chemical nicotine to these young people and their developing brains, and I fear we are only beginning to learn the possible health risks and outcomes for youth.”

Vaping devices are tiny and many resemble flash drives. A 14-year-old girl who revealed she had squirreled away more than a dozen different vaping device parts said she would grab whatever she could find at a friend’s house, or whenever her older sister would have company. She said the parts were easily hidden in her backpack, and she was able to match cartridges with vaping devices she had stolen.

Companies that manufacture some of the most popular e cigarette products have been accused of marketing to teens and preteens based on the fruitty flavors with cute names, such as The Clever Fool, Underboss, Space Jam Eclipse and hundreds more. Several online retailers sell vaping liquids that teens can easily purchase simply by clicking a button that says the user is 21 or over.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.