As the death toll from vaping-related illnesses climbs, University of Mississippi students shared mixed reactions on how this will affect their use of e-cigarette products.
The Mississippi State Department of Health confirmed the state’s first death linked to a vaping-related lung illness in September, sparking the state’s investigation into the relationship between severe pulmonary disease and the use of e-cigarette products.
According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 3.6 million U.S. citizens under the age of 18 use e-cigarette products, including 1 in 5 high school students and 1 in 20 middle school students.
Though the CDC has reported 10 deaths and over 800 vaping-related lung illnesses nationwide, some e-cigarette users were unphased by the news.
“Honestly, the articles and stories of kids getting serious health issues don’t phase me,” Samantha Cordesman, junior integrated marketing communications major, said. “Like yes, it made me think, ‘Is this really that dangerous?’ But most of the stories are of kids who’ve bought illegal pods and cartridges that have been tampered, which is obviously very dangerous.”
Of the confirmed deaths and injuries, state health officials in Wisconsin and Illinois suggested that black-market vape cartridges containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, are a likely cause of the deaths.
While many students have the mindset that they could never become the patient admitted for a vaping-related illness, others took the news as a push to quit.
“The recent news about health care and kids ending up in the hospital did have an impact on how I viewed Juuls and e-cigs and was part of the reason I quit juuling,” Lauren Valentine, junior hospitality management major said. “However, it was not the only reason. Before those articles came out, I knew juuling is unhealthy, so I was already contemplating quitting. The articles were just the push I needed.”
Many student users begin using e-cigarette products in social settings, but due to the addictive nicotine component in the product, users who once only used e-cigarettes as a social habit continued use in private as well.
“I started juuling the Christmas of freshman year,” Cordesman said. “My friends had them that year, and I would casually hit it here and there until I decided I wanted my own. It’s been almost two years. I quit for two weeks a few months ago but started again. I’ve been able to wean off of it a little bit and onto a lesser amount of nicotine on a much cheaper device.”
According to several students, the cost of their addiction was the reason they began to reduce use, but was not a reason to completely quit. Average user prices vary upon the vendor and the frequency of purchase, but a pack of four pods from the official Juul website costs $15.99.
“I used to spend more than $20 per week to get pods,” said Cordesman. “I would go through like two pods per day.”
The US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products has collected over 150 vaping product samples for research in the forensic chemistry center, according to Mitch Zeller, Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. Results show findings of vitamin E in samples, but no one ingredient has shown up consistently in all samples.
“The problem is it’s not clear what is in these e-cigarettes or vaping devices,” Sabrina Cupit, CDC Reporter for WSB Atlanta and CBS Radio Network, NY, said. “The CDC here in Atlanta is focusing in on products that contain THC, but they can’t rule out products that only contain nicotine either. There were reports earlier of a vitamin E component that could be to blame but that has not been verified as of yet.”
There is little known about the exact link between the cause of lung illness and the use of e-cigarette devices, leaving users blind to the consequences of what they continue to inhale.
“I honestly don’t know much about what’s in the pods, but you’ve got to imagine there’s some chemicals in there that aren’t safe for human consumption,” Grant Gibbons, a senior journalism major, said. “You never know what people could put in those things to try and keep you hooked.”
