By Jomil Reyes
A 17 year old grade 12 student at St. Francis Xavier High school
E-cigarettes, or most commonly known as “vapes” have been sold in multiple stores for many years. However, illnesses linked to vaping has increased since. Vaping has remained popular among underage teenagers across the world, thus causing a number of teens to become very ill, which can then eventually lead to death. In addition, cannabis vaping products are legalized in many parts of Canada, making them accessible to teenagers to use. The number of teenagers who vape marijuana has risen.
Due to e-cigarette addiction among teenagers and reported illnesses that arise, high schools around Edmonton are constantly trying to find different ways to help students who are addicted. These include guidance counselling, giving student fines when they are caught vaping on school grounds, and suspensions. However, students ignore these and continue to vape. Recently, schools have removed bathroom doors, as many students tend to vape in the bathroom. This became a controversy around schools, triggering parents to contact the building attempting to put the bathroom doors back in place. The removal of bathroom doors angered multiple parents and students as it took their privacy away. The question lies in whether removing bathroom doors will decrease the amount of students vaping on school grounds.
Many people will agree that vaping is less harmful than smoking; however, both are still harmful to the body with long-term effects. E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is an addictive substance that can affect the developing brains of users, especially teenagers. Moreover, doctors across Canada are concerned and worried about the health of people using e-cigarettes, most especially teenagers, as using these for a long period of time has some serious long-term effects in the body. Studies show that the use of e-cigarettes is highly linked to respiratory diseases, which include chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, chronic bronchitis, and asthma.