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Health

Young people think vaping is safe, but schools want them to know the dangers

A high school student uses a vaping device near a school campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by: Steven Senne/AP Photo

By Education Week, adapted by Newsela staff

Published:09/12/2019

Word Count:369

Recommended for:Middle School - High School

Text Level:3

Vaping has caused at least one death recently. Vaping is when someone uses an electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette.

Dozens of students have also been sent to the hospital. Vaping made them sick. It affected their lungs and how they breathe.

School leaders are worried about the rise of e-cigarettes. They want to prevent e-cigarette use.

Many school officials were surprised when vaping started becoming popular.

They tried various things to stop it. They tried to punish students caught vaping. They also tried to teach high school and middle school students about the dangers of vaping.

Vaping Has Nicotine, Which Causes Addiction

Experts are worried about nicotine's effects on students' brains. Nicotine is what makes smoking addictive. That means it makes you crave it. You start to need more and more of it. Nicotine is in both tobacco products and vaping products.

Experts say vaping is dangerous. It can harm students' bodies and brains. There are other bad chemicals in e-cigarettes. Vaping can cause breathing problems, heart problems and even seizures.

Many teens do not know about such risks. A lot of them think their e-cigarettes only have flavors.

So they may not know that there are bad substances in e-cigarettes. There are chemicals that are known to cause cancer. Other ingredients do not react well with the lungs. Breathing can become difficult. Vaping teens might start coughing more or have pain in their chests.

Vaping Is Not Safer

A lot of teenagers who start vaping do not stop there. They move on to smoking regular cigarettes within six months.

Teaching teens about the dangers of vaping may be hard. That is because people might think e-cigarettes are better than smoking regular cigarettes. That is a mistake.

School officials in Colorado have been developing a united approach. They asked parents to help.

Elizabeth Blackwell is a nurse at Fairview High School in Colorado. She sent parents letters. This was important because parents were not talking to their children about vaping.

They explained the types of devices that students use. They also talked about how to get treatment for students.

The program now starts in elementary school. Waiting until high school is too late to start talking about vaping.