In today’s world, there is not a single individual who doesn’t know about the hazards of cigarette smoking. This fact was known a long time ago and in order to get people off cigarettes, electronic cigarettes were invented as a healthier alternative. However, it did not produce the desired effect, on the contrary people became addicted to vaping itself, and not only that, its easier availability and less strict laws about vaping got teenagers addicted to it as well.
What is Vaping?
Vaping as is in its name is a process of creating vapors via liquid or fluid within a device that is inhaled just like smoke. Although vaping has been around for thousands of years in the form of hookahs, it became a real issue with the arrival of electronic vaping devices. The way modern vaping works is that a liquid pod, which consists of pure nicotine salts, benzoic acid, and glycerine. It is inserted into a device that regulates the temperature of the liquid, which usually delivers nicotine at an equally rapid rate in the cigarettes, and when the adequate temperature is reached, aerosols are released in the form of vapors that are inhaled.
History of Vaping
Though modern vaping became truly popular during the year 2016, it has been around for many years. Even if we take hookahs out of the picture, electronic cigarettes were invented in China in the year 2003 by a pharmacist, Hon Lik with the intention to stop people from smoking cigarettes that were established to be carcinogenic. Another driving factor for Hon Lik was that his father who happened to be a chain smoker died due to lung cancer. He developed an electronic cylinder-shaped vaping device that was similar to a cigar in shape. Though vaporizers have been around from as early as 1972, we are not considering them as those were bulky devices compared to modern e-cigarettes.
Hon Lik vaping by his created e-cigarette.
After the success of this vape, it caught the attention of Europeans, and in the year 2006, vapes were introduced in Europe as well, and unsurprisingly it was a hit. Soon after that America was riding the vape train and soon after pretty much the entire world started selling these electronic cigarettes.
In 2009 regulations and rules were put into place and it became illegal to buy these below the age of 18, also multiple countries banned the sale of vapes. But from the year 2006 to 2009 many vapes were sold to minors who were more or less already addicted to them.
After many changes in rules, bans, and unbans, finally it gained mainstream popularity in 2016 with the arrival of Juul. Juul was an instant sell, as it was sleek and didn’t require multiple pieces to be able to smoke. It was Juul that really started the vape trend over the internet and since then most e-cigarettes became slimmer and most people became addicted to it.
Sign of Vaping Addiction
As it is seen, it is quite popular among teenagers, and according to psychologists, that’s where most addiction habits begin. So how can you tell if someone is addicted to vaping?
- Dizziness: Unlike traditional cigarettes which combust to release the smoke, vaping occurs at a lower temperature around 150°C. This results in non-harsh smoke that doesn’t hurt the throat and due to this, people tend to inhale more vapors than they would while smoking cigarettes. Since it still is nicotine, one can experience severe dizziness after vaping. Though it is an acute symptom that usually fades away after some time, vaping addiction can cause chronic dizziness in which one starts to see with a hazy view. Though it is not officially recorded, in some extreme cases people have experienced hallucinations.
A visual representation of dizziness.
- Lack of Attention: Although this symptom is more evident in adolescents, it can even be seen in adults as well. One of the signs of excessive vaping shows as poor concentration. Being unable to focus on anything which may or may not be accompanied by dizziness, is again might be the result of excessive nicotine vapor inhaling which can slow the brain development in minors or even halt it in some extreme cases.
- Nosebleeds: One of the symptoms of vaping addiction is nosebleeds. Though nosebleed in itself is not that alarming it sure is a sign that people must look out for when it comes to vaping. The reason why it occurs is that when puffing, excessive vapors are produced which are also inhaled by nostrils and continuous vape going through the nose will result in drying of the nasal passage ultimately resulting in nose bleeds.
An individual stopping nosebleed with cotton.
- Insomnia: As during vaping, nicotine is absorbed in the blood, under normal circumstances, it might be that much of an issue, however, addicts tend to have a higher concentration of nicotine in their blood. Finally, when the individual falls asleep the nicotine levels drop and this hinders the receptors to engage the deep sleep. Deep sleep is considered an essential process when it comes to rest and recovery of both the brain and body. This is vaping addiction becomes so bad that it even has its own name, nic-sick. Researchers say that this can be detrimental to the developing brain; teenagers who are about 50% of the electronic cigarette buyers.
Borderline is that even though it started as a healthier alternative to cigarettes, it causing as much damage, if not more. Sure, one might develop cancer from traditional cigarettes but e-cigarettes are nothing better, these cause serious damage to the health. Comparatively, electronic vaping is fairly new and its true side effects are yet to be known.
