A popular trend affecting teens and their health is a small USB-looking device known as a Juul. It is an e-cigarette that uses nicotine salts that exist in leaf-based tobacco as its key ingredient. Students under the age of 18 find ways to get these, sometimes through of-age upperclassmen.

Owning and using a Juul or any other e-cigarette device is dangerous to a student’s health and should not be done.

These e-cigarettes had the original purpose of helping those with a tobacco addition to lessen their use, but because of their increased popularity, they are just adding to the problem. There are both short-term and long-term effects while using any tobacco product, and a Juul is no exception. Short-term include dizziness, dry mouth, coughing and sometimes nose bleeds. If that isn’t enough, smokers may also experience head highs caused by high levels of nicotine in the pods (the things put into the Juul that hold the vapors). Although using a Juul means not being exposed to the harsher chemicals that smoking would cause, one Juul pod has 5% nicotine, which is the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes. While vaping with a Juul may seem on trend, a nicotine addiction at the age of 18 or younger is certainly not.

From NBCnews.com, the pod from a Juul delivers about 200 puffs and assuming a teen smokes a pod a week, in five weeks it could equal 100 cigarettes. With the highly addictive qualities of nicotine and the still developing brains of adolescents, vaping can impair brain and lung development with continual use. Juuls are small, discreet and closely resemble a USB drive. Because of this, they are being used easily in a classroom setting or at home. Students are getting and using these e-cigarettes at an alarming rate, all the while unknowingly becoming addicted.

Nicotine enters the body and first comes in contact with the brain, disrupting its reward system causing the addiction. Nicotine also affects the lungs and the body’s arteries by causing them to become narrower. This means the amount of oxygen being circulated in the body is lessened,  which could result in a decrease of brain function. Nicotine is also used in insecticides. Something made to kill things should not be inhaled into the body, even if they think it makes them “cool.”

Some students may say that “Juuling” is safer than smoking real cigarettes or illegal drugs, when in reality, inhaling any kind of chemicals is never good for one’s body and developing mind. High school students are at such an influenceable age and will try to do anything that seems popular, even if it means doing harm to their healthy bodies. Teens should start to realize this and make the right decision to do away with any kind of vaping, especially “Juuling.”

A Juul may seem like a small device that won’t cause any harm, but they can lead to a number of negative effects on the body.  Students need to take action now by not using e-cigarette devices to prevent a nicotine addiction that could last their entire life.