“It’s addictive,” says a Mendocino High School student, “I know I’m hurting my body and doing a lot of damage, but at the same time it’s such an easy and normal thing to do.”

Vaping, the act of inhaling and exhaling vapor from an E-cigarette device, is a popular and trendy pastime nowadays. These E-cigarettes were created to help adult smokers quit smoking, but instead underage students have taken an extreme liking to them. Some even say that the younger generations are being targeted by these companies through their kid-friendly flavors such as bubble gum, cotton candy, and mint. While E-cigs may be helping some adults end their nicotine addiction, they are also getting students who have never smoked hooked. This issue is all over schools; addicted students vape whenever they get the opportunity, and since it’s so easy to do, there are barely any limits to the location.

At Mendocino schools, some students have trouble controlling themselves when it comes to using E-cigarettes. Unlike a regular cigarette, this small convenient device allows the students to constantly vape throughout the day.“Yes, I feel paranoid, but I feel like it is really easy to get away with,” a local student said when asked about vaping during school hours.  

These problems don’t begin only in high school; Students at the Mendocino Middle School are also struggling with vaping issues. After interviewing multiple students, it appears that the reason younger kids get hooked easily is because of the “cool factor.” Students in middle school are pressured to feel like adults, so they do a variety of things, in this case vaping, to try and be mature.

Many believe that it is a healthier way of consuming nicotine, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove this.  Research shows that vaping can also come with some serious health risks and repercussions. One example is how you can inhale toxic metals such as lead. Lead has been known to cause permanent health damage, which affects the development of the brain and nervous system. In one of our interviews, we were notified by a student that vaping can also cause “Popcorn Lung.” Popcorn Lung is a nickname for Bronchiolitis Obliterans, a condition that causes damage to your lungs’ smallest airways. It can make you cough and feel short of breath and is sometimes known to be caused by inhaling the chemicals used in microwave popcorn, hence its name. Emily Inwood, the Health teacher at the Mendocino High Schools, believes that vaping will be “the next thing to be found to cause a bunch of cancers and problems,” and it seems like her guess isn’t far from the truth.  While technically vaping is better than smoking in some ways, both have chemicals that can be detrimental to your health. E-cigarettes don’t contain cancer-causing tobacco, but when the e-liquid is heated, it can form carcinogenic compounds. Because E-cigarettes are so new, there hasn’t been a lot of research on the long-term health effects.

At this time, e-cigarettes are foreign to many parents, so unfortunately, they are unfamiliar with the risks as well. So for the time being, it is up to the students to decide if the repercussions are worth the thrill.