Introduction
It has seen the introduction of e-cigarettes, also referred to as vapers (Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association [CASAA], 2019). Most persons prefer vaper usage as they view it as a better alternative to conventional cigarette smoking. The use of vapers has been on the rise and popularly with the Youth (Giovacchini, C. X. et al., 2017); the concern is that electronic cigarette usage among the Youth has reached epidemic proportions (Kilpatrick, T, 2020). There is a need to understand how deep e-cigarette is rooted in the youths, weigh the pros and cons of this influence, and provide ways of resolving vaping.
This paper employs comprehensive literature searches to provide an understanding of the aspects of Youth vaping by asking the following questions: What generation are the most affected by vaping and why; what actions have been put in place to resolve to vape and the effects of those strategies; what are the results of vaping and what are the appropriate ways to solve the dilemma of vaping.
Youths as the most affected generation
Statistics has it that youths are the most affected and the use of vaper among the adolescent is on the rise. (Kilpatrick, T., 2020). Analysis of the databases searches establishes that the youths are the most affected by the vaping influence. In 2019, 5.4 million young adults and youths use e-cigarettes. The numbers refer to approximately 10.5 % of middle school youths and 27.5% of high school youths. Comparatively, adults using the e-cigarette, according to the data relied upon by the research, is lower as only 3.2% of adults in 2018 used e-cigarettes.
According to most researchers, most adolescents today fall into Generation Z; Gen Z refers to those born between the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s. The number of high and middle school students using e-cigarette increased by 900% between 2011 to 2015, reducing in 2016 and further increasing in 2017 (King, B. A. et al., 2020).
Despite being the most affected group little is understood about the adolescent vaper users so as to shape the campaigns and policies to address their issues. There is a need to understand them so that campaigns are customized to the appropriate audience. Study shows that hip-hop and mainstream peer crowd teenagers and young adults have exceptional vaping habits (Stalgaitis, C. A. et al., 2020). This group of young people has higher approval of trendy social values and social prioritization than peers and non-users.
There is a diverse trending social traits of using e-cigarettes that affects the habits of the young people. The environment of vaping is occasioned by complex traits and emotional dedication by the youths (Yule, J., & Tinson, J., 2016). There has been a previous concentration on de-marketing smoking and demonstrates different levels of traits and emotional dedication to vaping characteristics by recognizing the ethics, invisibility, complexity, and insecurity of vapers.
There are variant motivations that lead to the young people to vaping. Most of the youth who find themselves vaping begin to avoid smoking and are motivated to vaping by factors including pleasure, harm reduction, addiction, community, and stigma (McCausland, K. et al., 2020). A comprehensive understanding of the variables in vaping habits and the vaping youths goes a long way in shaping research, policy, and health communications.
The data from the 2017 ITC youth vaping and tobacco survey by children between the age of 16 to 19 in England, Canada, and the U.S, demonstrates that there is a thin line of difference existing among social norms in vaping and smoking (East, K. A. et al., 2019). 52% of teenagers who get the temptation of vaping either have friends who are vaping, smoking, or both. The existing peer approval of vaping is higher compared to smoking in most of the countries attracting young people to it. The peer approval makes vaping is more popular with teens than smoking in most of the countries, with the teenagers in England preferring smoking to vape.
Public Health Campaigns and Policy
The government has had several attempts to solve the problem of e-cigarettes usage (Youth, E. C. U. A., & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services., 2016). the government's actions at different levels, territorial, tribal, local state, and national, to address e-cigarette use concern among youth and young adults include various policy strategies to reduce vaping, including; preventing youths from accessing e-cigs, incorporating e-cigs into free smoke policies, price, tax policies, regulating e-cigarettes, and retail licensures having educational programs targeting young adults and youths. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating the distribution, sales, promotion, advertising, labeling, packaging, importing, and manufacturing of e-cigarettes. For example, in 2016 the FDA began the enforcement of the ban on sales through vending machines unless it is instituted in an adult-only facility and prohibition of sales to minors and free samples.
Those influencing the young adults and the youth, including healthcare providers, teachers, and parents, play a significant role in providing useful information to the youth on the danger vaping as part of the policy campaign and policy framework to curb the use of e-cigarettes. These youths habit influencers need to be tobacco-free themselves to serve as a role model to the youth (Youth, E. C. U. A., & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).
Role of Advertisement in influencing vaping
The sources of information that are accessible to the youths, like those in colleges, affects what they relate to in their day to day lives. There is a connection among information sources, including social media and adverts for e-cigarette and the messages that college students relate (Dobbs, P. et al., 2020). Friends who are already smoking and other e-cigarette users form a significant information source for vaping as they readily have the information to share with their peers. Health education specialists operating in high schools and colleges can also significantly influence the students' activities.
Advertisements forms the most part of where the young generation get information on vaping to develop the interest. Vaper marketing practices have led to the increase in the usage of e-cigarettes among the youth and teenagers, though the efficiency of regulations on the promotion and advertisement of e-cigarettes has not been evaluated (Hammond, D. et al., 2020). Evidence indicates that legislation liberalizing the e-cigarette industry should provide the avenues for assessing the rules limiting e-cigarette marketing. Various teens have exposure to the marketing and promotion of e-cigarettes, which higher in regions with minimum restriction rules-regional e-cigarette restriction results in low-level exposure, translating into a reduced number of users.
Exposure of the young people to vaping advertisements has led them to get interest in the ads (Cho, Y. J. et al., 2019). The data on findings from the 2017 International Tobacco Control Youth Tobacco and Vaping Survey indicates that in England, Canada, and the U.S considers the different regulatory framework for vaping products advertisement and observe that exposure has an influence on perception of the young people on vaping. Mostly the perception is that the use of e-cigarette is a desirable thing as the ads make it look. Unfortunately, today many youths and young adults have had exposure to vaping advertisements.
Pros vs. Cons of vaping
Whereas vaping enjoys the benefit of not exposing users to the dangerous smoke resulting from smoking, it has several adverse health impacts. An overview of various health literature on the impact of e-cigarettes to give a clear vision of the effect of vaping to human organs system's health. E-cigarette exposure has resulted in the pulmonary system's inflammatory reactions, including impaired pulmonary function, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and a range of stress. Other effects as identified by the article are ocular irritation, dermatitis, toxicity, renal insufficiency, and possible carcinogenicity (Seiler-Ramadas, R. et al., 2020).
Vaping in itself increases the possibility of the young people using it ending up as smokers (Green, M. et al., 2020). Moreover, the increased possibility of youth smoking is not only closely attributed to parents' influence on smoking but also the use of e-cigarette by parents. The use propensity weighing trajectory qualifies vaping effects on adults and young adults with vaping characteristics. People who form the habit of vaping are vulnerable to the abuse of other substances. E-cigarettes influence people to use tobacco products, alcohol, marijuana, and other substances (Chadi, N. et al., 2020). Even though vaping results in reduced smoking for the adult, such proof of help does not exist for youth people. Various strategies are in place to enable young people to shy smoking, but there is less awareness of the clinical interventions that have succeeded in this cause. For as long as there is a connection between smoking and vaping demonstrated by public data (Levy, D. T. et al., 2019), the strategies need to comprehend vaping as well.
The influence to either smoking or vaping depending on the habit that a person forms first is mutual indicating addiction i.e., previous marijuana users and smokers were at a high risk of vaping nicotine, marijuana, and just flavoring (Dai, H., & Siahpush, M, 2020). The data on 2017 monitoring future survey and the estimates of substance that youth vaper and conducted other multivariable logistic developments exploring the youths' risk factors using the vaping products. The usage of e-cigarettes among the youth shows a complicated pattern, and young people report vaping substances not only for flavor but also addictive.
Vaping most definitely results into ling injuries which turn catastrophic to threaten life (Messina, M. D. et al., 2020). Research shows that almost all pediatric patients diagnosed with EVALI in the United States health system through CDC measures in six months had six patients who introduced specific respiratory and gastrointestinal grievances had a predominant aspect of the sickness, pulmonary symptomatology ((Messina, M. D. et al., 2020)). The article found that with the distinctions in side effects, there is a high doubt concerning EVALI with a patient who reports the utilization of vaping items paying little mind to their pulmonary complaints.
Resolving the vaping dilemma
Resolving the vaping dilemma first calls for the understanding of the problem. A qualitative study exploring the responses of youth and young adults who vape e-cigarettes can help develop the appropriate strategies to help young adults and adolescents vaping. The parallels in smoking and vaping are attributable to three main themes affecting one's ability to quit: behavioral fulfillment, stress reduction, and social benefits (Sanchez, S. et al., 2020). Quitting is attributed to financial loss, dependency, and industrial impact. Though there is considerable overlap between smoking and vaping, conscious of the variables for motivations and the barriers for quitting help design research and concerns on termination of vaping among young people. Some of the mechanisms to control e-cigarettes usage among young people, including education campaigns, implementing indoor-use restrictions, and raising the products prices (King, B. A. et al., 2020).
E-cigarette use status introducing nicotine and chemicals in e-cigarette-related risks differed with sexual orientation, gender, and race. The health risk relating to vaping is associated with teenagers' demographic and sexual orientation. Thus, education strategies can improve teens' awareness concerning health risks associated with e-cigarettes and reduce vaping use (Vu, T. H. T et al., 2020).
The problem of vaping is deeply rooted among the young people. A national survey of U.S. adolescents on the content of the vape administered by the young people, the survey observes that those students who had not utilized vaporizer by grade 12 had used flavoring (Miech, R.et al., 2017). The report states that the rise in vapers' use among young people does not necessarily equate to nicotine's addictiveness; however, the study observes that those involved in vaping can engage in a simple prevention program. Understanding these dynamics can help in knowing where to focus the energy fighting the dilemma.
One cannot develop interest for what they don’t know. Effectively regulation on the advertisements on e-cigarettes will go a long way in reducing the exposure of the young people to the vaping products. There is a justification for policies control the marketing of substances and vaping among the youth ((Miech, R.et al., 2017), which is the general public good and the health risk that the exposure to e-cigarettes has on the young generation.
The regulatory nightmare is that doing away with non-therapeutic nicotine products poses ethical challenges as its elimination eliminates the smokers' route to quit smoking and less harmful smoking habits. Striking of balance in encouraging quitting smoking among the adults by encouraging them to use vaping as a less harmful alternative and keeping teenagers away from vaping and subsequently getting to smoke remains the challenge(Gartner, C., 2018). There are other regulatory mechanism that can reduce the youths’ exposure not necessary at the expense of the adults who would want to use the vaping mechanism as a way of quitting smoking.
Outcomes for solving vaping
It is the obligation of every state to protect its current generations and the posterity. Study shows that the cessation tools used by the youths as the recreational activities have adverse effects on the population of the young people (Sisson, J., 2020). There is increased heart complication that turn out catastrophic reducing the general population of the young people. Even if the youth habiting vaping were to stay alive the health complications for the time they will be living is unwarranted. The history of tobacco usage is nothing to smile about and it affords a comprehensive understanding of the vaper issues and what the country is risking (Sisson, J., 2020).
Most youths across the country are addicts to vaping but have little regard for the health dangers resulting from vape use. There is need to stop the vaping habit among the young people to improve on the quality of their lives which has an impact on the economic national growth as they are required to help in the building of the country and in a few years take over all together the nation’s building.
Conclusion
The literature trend indicates that the young generation, generation Z, which are mostly falling in the adolescent stage, are the most affected by vaping. The literature review points to the social trend conforming by these young people as the most significant cause of vaping, the formation of the movements are influenced a great deal by the information sources like ads. Throughout the review, it is observed that vaping has adverse health effects on the youths, and there is a need to shun vaping by young people for the great good of the country.
Reference
Budney, A. J., Sargent, J. D., & Lee, D. C. (2015). Vaping cannabis (marijuana): parallel concerns to e‐cigs?. Addiction, 110(11), 1699-1704.
Borland, R. (2019). Examining the relationship of vaping to smoking initiation among US youth and young adults: a reality check. Tobacco control, 28(6), 629-635.
Cho, Y. J., Thrasher, J. F., Reid, J. L., Hitchman, S., & Hammond, D. (2019). Youth self-reported exposure to and perceptions of vaping advertisements: Findings from the 2017 International Tobacco Control Youth Tobacco and Vaping Survey. Preventive medicine, 126, 105775.
Chadi, N., & Belanger, R. E. (2020). Teen vaping: There is no vapor without fire. Paediatrics & Child Health, 25(6), 337-339.
Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association. (2019). A Historical Timeline of Electronic Cigarettes en CASAA website. Recovered from http://www. casaa. org/historical-timeline-of-electronic-cigarettes/. Access on December, 24, 2020.
Dai, H., & Siahpush, M. (2020). Use of e-cigarettes for nicotine, marijuana, and just flavoring among U.S. youth. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 58(2), 244-249.
Dobbs, P. D., Clawson, A. H., Gowin, M., & Cheney, M. K. (2020). Where college students look for vaping information and what information they believe. Journal of American College Health, 68(4), 347-356.
East, K. A., Hitchman, S. C., McNeill, A., Thrasher, J. F., & Hammond, D. (2019). Social norms towards smoking and vaping and associations with product use among youth in England, Canada, and the U.S. Drug and alcohol dependence, 205, 107635.
Gartner, C. (2018). How can we protect youth from putative vaping gateway effects without denying smokers a less harmful option?. Addiction, 113(10), 1784-1785.
Giovacchini, C. X., Pacek, L., McClernon, F. J., & Que, L. G. (2017). Use and perceived risk of electronic cigarettes among North Carolina middle and high school students. North Carolina medical journal, 78(1), 7-13.
Hammond, D., Reid, J. L., Burkhalter, R., & Rynard, V. L. (2020). E-cigarette Marketing Regulations and Youth Vaping: Cross-Sectional Surveys, 2017–2019. Pediatrics, 146(1).
King, B. A., Jones, C. M., Baldwin, G. T., & Briss, P. A. (2020). The EVALI and youth vaping epidemics — implications for public health. The New England Journal of Medicine, 382(8), 689-691. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/10.1056/NEJMp1916171
Kilpatrick, T. (2020). Youth Vaping: An Analysis of an Epidemic.
Levy, D. T., Warner, K. E., Cummings, K. M., Hammond, D., Kuo, C., Fong, G. T., ... & Green, M., Gray, L., & Sweeting, H. (2020). Youth vaping and smoking and parental vaping: a panel survey.
Messina, M. D., Levin, T. L., Conrad, L. A., & Bidiwala, A. (2020). Vaping associated lung injury: A potentially life‐threatening epidemic in U.S. youth. Pediatric pulmonology.
Miech, R., Patrick, M. E., O'Malley, P. M., & Johnston, L. D. (2017). What are kids vaping? Results from a national survey of U.S. adolescents. Tobacco Control, 26(4), 386-391.
McCausland, K., Jancey, J., Leaver, T., Wolf, K., Freeman, B., & Maycock, B. (2020). Motivations for use, identity, and the vaper subculture: a qualitative study of Western Australian vapers' experiences. BMC public health, 20(1), 1-14.
Sanchez, S., Kaufman, P., Pelletier, H., Baskerville, B., Feng, P., O'Connor, S., ... & Chaiton, M. (2020). Is vaping cessation like smoking cessation? A qualitative study exploring the responses of youth and young adults who vape e-cigarettes. Addictive Behaviors, 113, 106687.
Seiler-Ramadas, R., Sandner, I., Haider, S., Grabovac, I., & Dorner, T. E. (2020). Health effects of electronic cigarette (ecigarette) use on organ systems and its implications for public health. Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 1-8.
Sisson, J. (2020). The Effects and Implications of Vaping on the Youth Population.
Stalgaitis, C. A., Djakaria, M., & Jordan, J. W. (2020). The Vaping Teenager: Understanding the Psychographics and Interests of Adolescent Vape Users to Inform Health Communication Campaigns. Tobacco use insights, 13, 1179173X20945695.
Vu, T. H. T., Groom, A., Hart, J. L., Tran, H., Landry, R. L., Ma, J. Z., ... & Robertson, R. M. (2020). Socio-economic and Demographic Status and Perceived Health Risks of E-Cigarette Product Contents Among Youth: Results From a National Survey. Health Promotion Practice, 21(1_suppl), 148S-156.
Youth, E. C. U. A., & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2016). A Report of the Surgeon General—Executive Summary. Off. Smok.
Yule, J. A., & Tinson, J. S. (2017). Youth and the sociability of “Vaping”. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 16(1), 3-14.