Today’s youth spends enormous sums of money on designer clothes and brand-name items. Yet in years past, young adults only needed one thing to make them look cool—cigarettes. Affordability, popularity and that indescribable “chic” factor were all incentives to smoke in the old days.
*Image from Imgflu.com
The public is now well aware of the deadly ramifications of smoking. Addiction, mouth cancer, and lung cancer are some of the many risks involved. Due to the advertising of this unnerving information, smoking has become less and less popular in recent decades. However, in the last couple months, a new trend has been spotted amongst celebrities, youths, and collegiettes alike… e-cigarettes.
So, how do e-cigs work? There are three major components: a vaporization chamber, a battery, and a cartridge filled with liquid nicotine. When the user inhales, the battery sends electrical signals to the vaporization chamber that cause it to draw and boil solution from the cartridge.
With e-cigs, there are no yellowed teeth or fingers and no cigarette butts or ashes. They are odor-less, smoke-free, tar-free, and, most importantly, do NOT contain tobacco. Believe it or not, puffing on an electronic cigarette isn’t even considered smoking since the user is just exhaling vaporized liquid.
While normal cigarettes contain close to 4,000 deadly chemicals, e-cigarettes only contain nicotine. There are even a variety of flavors available for the new technology, such as chocolate, apple, caramel, coffee, and orange.
Sound too good to be true? Well, that’s exactly what many are arguing. Health experts are concerned about the consequences of inhaling pure nicotine. The FDA has yet to approve the devices and e-cigarettes are currently unregulated. The lack of adequate studies and regulation raises the issue of quality control. E-cig manufacturers may not be disclosing all of the chemicals in their products or lying about the actual amount of nicotine in the cartridge.
So… are e-cigs the new cool thing? Even though celebs and rappers are hopping on the e-cig bandwagon doesn’t mean you should, collegiettes. Although e-cigs definitely appear to be a better alternative to smoking, it’s better to wait until proper studies are conducted. Remember: being healthy is much more important than being “cool.”