One in five young people smokes an electronic cigarette. On our comment platform NUjij, not every reader seemed to find this a problem. Unjustified, says pulmonologist Wanda de Kanter. “Young people do not understand that health damage caused by vaping is irreversible.”
Vapes contain so-called nicotine salt. This form has a less sharp taste and feels softer. Due to the combination of this nicotine form and the flavors in the electronic cigarette, you cannot taste or feel the nicotine. This makes the vape seem harmless. Especially because it came onto the market as a means to quit traditional cigarettes. Young people are lured with colors, flavors, lights and scents.
Yet vaping is anything but innocent, says De Kanter, who is also chairman of Smoking Prevention Youth. “Vapes contain as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.” In addition, nicotine salt is absorbed faster into your body. And that is harmful, says physician-epidemiologist Ellen Croes. “Because if it gets into your brain faster, you are more likely to become addicted.”
De Kanter sees the damage of vaping again in the hospital. “We see on various scans that there are signs of pneumonia, but also DNA damage in the mouth.”
From vapor to tobacco
Quitting cigarettes or vapes is difficult. According to Croes, an early nicotine addiction is “an addiction for life.”
De Kanter also sees that e-cigarettes pave the way for normal cigarettes. Young people who vape are three to five times more likely to start smoking cigarettes than young people who do not vape. “You see in the figures from the Trimbos Institute that almost 70 percent of young people who vape also smoke cigarettes.”
According to Croes, young people who smoke and vape run an increased health risk because they are exposed to harmful substances from tobacco cigarettes and vape vapor. Moreover, the combination ensures that you, as a ‘dual user’, consume a lot of nicotine. This can lead to nicotine poisoning, which in turn can trigger an epileptic attack.
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A downward spiral
And then there are also the mental disadvantages of vaping. Initially, young people start vaping “to act cool or to fit in,” says De Kanter. But use can lead to mental complaints.
“The nicotine makes your body produce dopamine, a pleasure hormone. If the brain misses that because you haven’t smoked or vaped for a while, you get stressed.” Over time, that stress means that you need more and more nicotine and therefore have to vape more.
For some young people, the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine addiction or just a few hours without the vape are intense. “You see that young people get depression or anxiety attacks,” De Kanter warns.
In addition, the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that allows you to plan and control your impulses, is affected by long exposure to nicotine. “That brain area is still developing in young people, so damage is irreversible,” says De Kanter. And when you can’t control your impulses properly, it opens the gates to other addictions.
De Kanter would prefer to see young people stop smoking or vaping altogether. She does this through the citizens’ initiative Nicotinee. If it were up to her, the sale of nicotine-containing products would be linked to the year of birth. So that anyone born after 2012 will never be allowed to smoke vapes or cigarettes again, even once they reach adulthood. “A nicotine-free generation,” is what she calls the goal.
2023-10-04 18:19:25
#vaping #unhealthy #NU.nl
