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BLOOMINGTON – People with health problems and health professionals agree that smoking is not as harmful to health as smoking.
After that, there is little agreement.
"It's the only thing I found that made me stop smoking," Zach Magon said about the use of electronic cigarettes (electronic cigarettes). Steam inhales and exhales the vapor produced by an e-cigarette.
But Dr. John Burr, a pulmonologist at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, said, "It's not as dangerous as smoking, but it's not a blessing, so we'd like to get people out of it.
"It (vaping) is very harmful and just as addictive," said Dr. Kaninika Verma, a pulmonologist at the Illinois Lung & Critical Care Institute, a subsidiary of OSF Medical Group. "Whenever we put something in our airways that is not there, it's dangerous."
"Most electronic cigarettes contain nicotine," said Marisa Hosier, director of health promotion at the Macon County Health Department. Although the amount of nicotine may be less than that of a cigarette, "nicotine can affect the development of the adolescent brain," she said.
Electronic cigarettes are battery powered devices that people use to inhale nicotine. They often look like ordinary cigarettes and give off steam rather than smoke.
Electronic cigarettes were marketed many years ago to help people quit smoking.
Twelve percent of high school students are smoking, according to the 2017 National Survey of Youth Smoking.
"It has become the new fashionable addiction for many young people and the elderly are using it to try to quit," Burr said.
"In general, I am supportive of FDA regulations, particularly efforts to limit youth use," Burr said.
"Eight years ago, when vaping products appeared, they were not regulated," she said. "When you have flavors like cotton candy … who does it go to? These companies have a responsibility to make sure that their products do not fall into the hands of anyone." children. "
Said Magon, all you can do to make sure the kids do not buy it, I am. Here we give map to everyone. We do not sell to children.
"I say forbidding online sales (of vaping products) and doubling the penalties for people who sell to minors and we would drastically reduce the problem (of vaping children)," he said. offers.
"Do not lose it for the rest of us," he continued. This does not include the prohibition of flavors.
Magon said the aromas of electronic cigarettes, such as the sweet cinnamon biscuits, had helped her quit smoking.
"It changes your palate and is more satisfying than a cigarette," he explained. It helps you quit because if you go back to smoking, "it's like the first time you tried a cigarette," he said. "Not good."
Although e-cigarettes contain nicotine, they do not contain as much as cigarettes. "And you do not inhale that long," said Magon, adding that since he's switched from smoking to vape, his stamina and strength have improved.
JC Connors, a customer of The Choice Vape Shop this week, said that he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day until the vaping, combined with the transdermal patch, helped him quit smoking there eight years ago.
"It was the most painless and effortless change I've ever experienced," said Connors, of Libertyville. "I have not smoked cigarettes for eight years."
Connors said that he did not run out of breath when he exercised and called the vaping "much less intrusive" than smoking.
"I walk outside, take three strokes and go back to work," he said.
But Burr, Verma and Hosier said the dangers of vaping go beyond nicotine inhalation, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Electronic cigarettes also produce formaldehyde, which is toxic, Burr said. The vaping solutions contain chemicals and some have been linked to cancer and lung disease, Verma said.
The long-term effects of vaping are not known because they have not been studied in the long term, said Hosier and Burr, who urge patients to try more conventional ways to quit smoking, such as nicotine substitutes or Chantix or Wellbutrin.
And what does he say to young people who are considering vaping?
"I know your friends are telling you that it's great and that it's a source of energy, but that eventually it will hurt your lungs and you will not be able to do that." what you want when you're old with lung disease. "
Said Hosier, "You are responsible for your health."
Contact Paul Swiech at (309) 820-3275. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_swiech
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