Victor Jorges/News Director
Eight deaths and over 500 cases of lung disease have been caused by vaping as of Sept. 20, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although vaping might be seen as something innocent, it’s not.
“Nicotine is absolutely a drug,” said FIU professor, William Berry, who teaches the course, Psychology of Drugs.
In fact, a very harmful one.
The amount of nicotine in a cigar would kill two humans if injected directly into their system, according to Berry. Additionally, nicotine is used as a pesticide in other countries.
In humans and animals, the effects of nicotine are reinforcing, making it addictive.
Originally, vaping became popular to alleviate the nicotine needs of those trying to quit cigarette smoking, proposing a less harmful alternative to the traditional “cancer stick” or “coffin nail”.
Berry believes it is normal for people who never smoked cigarettes to be addicted to vaping.
“Vaping is just another means of getting the drug into the system,” said Berry. “It affects the reward centers of the brain and thereby lends itself to being addicted.”
According to the CDC’s data on 373 of the 530 cases in the United States, 72 percent of the cases are male, 67 percent of cases 18 to 34 years old, 16 percent are under 18 years old and 17% are 35 of older.
However, 100 percent of the cases are directly connected to e-cigarette use or vaping.
Nationally, there has been what could be called a “vaping epidemic” and it has grabbed the attention of politicians and leaders.
President Donald Trump said that “People are dying with vaping so we’re looking at it very closely” at a press conference in the Oval Office on Sept. 11.
Even the First Lady, Melania Trump has commented on the issue.
Via Twitter, she shared that she’s “am deeply concerned about the growing epidemic of e-cigarette use in our children. We need to do all we can to protect the public from tobacco-related disease and death, and prevent e-cigarettes from becoming an on-ramp to nicotine addiction for a generation of youth.” on Sept. 9.
In terms of what the FIU community can do to not be a part of this epidemic is education, according to Berry.
“FIU already does a lot, making campus a smoke free environment. I’ve always been an advocate of education, and letting people make their own choices, though as humans we seem to have knowledge and yet make poor choices regularly,” said Berry. “Regardless, I still believe education is the best intervention.”
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