The American Vaping Association loves to defend their products as a “healthy” or “safer” substitute for smoking cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes are not a healthy substitute to regular smoking. The only difference between the two cigarettes is that one requires a lighter and the other requires an electrical charge.

There are movements wanting to ban cigarettes and e-cigarettes as a whole, such as The Truth. They have produced many graphic commercials on why smoking is harmful but they don’t send a powerful message about the consequences of e-cigarettes. Recently, the Trump administration decided to take action.

For once in his presidential career, Trump is taking action handling a huge problem within the youth of our country, and I can get behind this. Initially, the problem with e-cigarettes was that the battery would randomly catch fire or explode on the user, but now we know that the vapor is having a catastrophic effect on users. There have been several reports of adults and teenagers going to hospitals because of lung injuries caused by e-cigarettes.

There have been many studies conducted on the health consequences of e-cigarettes. They contain nicotine; people may think that ‘Oh, that just means I’ll become addicted with no other consequences,’ but the website Drugabuse.gov gives a better explanation of the consequences of nicotine. The website states, “Young people who use nicotine products in any form, including e-cigarettes, are uniquely at risk for long-lasting effects. Because nicotine affects the development of the brain’s reward system, continued e-cigarette use can not only lead to nicotine addiction, but it also can make other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine more pleasurable to a teen’s developing brain.” The Trump administration is taking the situation seriously, and depending on how they approach it, this could be better for us all in the end.