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possible health risks. Officials were concerned that students were not aware that e-cigarettes, like traditional cigarettes, pose a threat to their health. According to the University of Michigan report, e-cigarettes have one of the lowest levels of perceived risk for regular use of all drugs, including alcohol. E-cigarettes reportedly help people to kick the habit of smoking. However, medical experts have expressed worries that the system may work the other way around, with users of e-cigarettes developing a habit for real cigarettes over time.
“If a kid uses non-nicotine juice in a vape device, it’s not going to be long before they start using the nicotine version of the same thing,” Turbeville said.
Being cited for possession of a nicotine dispensing device involves several consequences. For the first violation, a person must serve 16 hours of community service or a $25 fine. Also, that person must attend a school-approved anti-tobacco and nicotine program. The consequences get more serious if offenses are committed more than once. After three violations within 12 weeks, the person’s driver license is revoked.
The county mainly cites health concerns as the cause of the new rules. County officials believe that vapes pose a potential threat to the wellbeing of minors.
Although vapes and other e-cigarette products were made to be helpful alternatives to the dangerous practice of smoking, medical experts have expressed worries about the safety of vapes themselves. A report released by The National Academies of Sciences states that users of e-cigarettes are likely to transition to smoking conventional cigarettes. Also, according to Penn State University, many e-cigarettes, even ones that claim to
be nicotine free, contain certain amounts of nicotine. In fact, one juul pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. This addictive substance has been proven to affect the way adolescent brains develop.
“There is substantial evidence that, because of the nicotine content in the vapor, e-cigarettes are likely to be as addictive as tobacco cigarettes,” Dr. David Eaton, the chairman of the committee that wrote the National Academies of Sciences report, said.
Another concern is the vape industry’s use of flavoring in their products. When laws regulating cigarettes were passed in the United States, cigarette companies were restricted from flavoring their cigarettes with anything other than menthol. Anti-smoking activists said that flavoring helped cigarette companies advertise to children, and flavors such as bubble gum and candy were banned from use by cigarette companies. But these restrictions don’t apply to e-cigarettes. Vape juice is sold in flavors such as mango and fruit medley- and some say that it encourages children to start using e-cigarettes sooner.
However, some scientists take the view that e-cigarettes are helpful, not harmful. The report from the National Academies of Science states that e-cigarettes are far less likely to be harmful than traditional cigarettes. Vapes contain less dangerous substances, and the use of e-cigarettes may help adults to quit smoking. The long-term health effects of e-cigarettes, according to the report, are not clear. They are a relatively new product, and research is not fully complete.
“There is not very much scientific data from human studies to demonstrate how safe or harmful these products are,” Eaton said.
Florida treats e-cigarettes as dangerous, addictive drugs
and the recent county rule change serves to make the restrictions around them tighter. In the future, the district will exercise stricter use of disciplinary action against juveniles with vapes, juuls, or other forms of e-cigarettes. So, while vaping has long been advertised as the safer, better relative of smoking, it holds a new risk of legal citations and consequences for minors.
LATE BREAKING:
The war on drugs may soon expand to include vapes.
On September 5, the commissioner of the FDA, Scott Gottlieb, announced that the surge of vapes among minors was an “epidemic.” The FDA is going to force e-cigarette companies to stop selling their products if they cannot prove that they are taking effective measures to keep them f rom the hands of minors. E-cigarette companies such as Juul, Vuse, MarkTen XL, Blu and Logic, which compromise 97 percent of the e-cigarette market, have been given 60 days to formulate reports on how they can implement strong precautions to prevent underage vaping. If the FDA thinks that these plans are not effective enough, they will take steps towards banning e-cigarettes from being sold.
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