These days most teens are aware of the dangers that come with things like doing drugs or smoking cigarettes, but somehow they haven’t quite gotten the message about the dangers of vaping. One in five US high school students and one in 20 middle school students currently vape. While kids might assume it’s harmless, what happened to 17-year-old Tryston Zohfeld tells a different story. The Dallas, Texas, teen spent 10 days being kept alive by a ventilator, and doctors think his lung injuries can be attributed to vaping.
Vaping involves using an electronic cigarette (sometimes called a vape pen or e-cigarette) to inhale the smoke from flavored liquids, many of which contain nicotine. Zohfeld started vaping in middle school, according to CBS. The teen was hospitalized earlier this month after he woke up vomiting and unable to catch his breath, with an extremely high heart rate.
Doctors determined that the teen’s lungs were failing, and he was placed on a ventilator to keep him alive while they worked to determine the cause. Pulmonologist Karen Schultz told CBS she now believes Zohfeld’s vaping led to scarring on his lungs.
Zohfeld is not the first to deal with scary side effects of vaping. In 2018, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared e-cigarettes an epidemic among youth. Federal health officials are also investigating a huge increase in cases of severe lung illnesses linked to vaping. So far, there are over 150 reported cases of lung illnesses like Zohfeld’s across 16 states, the majority of which have been diagnosed in adolescents and young adults who have smoked e-cigarettes.
No deaths have been reported, and the lung illnesses have not been linked to a specific vaping product. Nonetheless, many e-cigarette liquids have been found to contain heavy metals, like tin, nickel and lead, as well as chemical flavorants like diacetyl, which has been linked to lung disease. A study by Dr. Bader Chaarani of the University of Vermont also found that smoking cigarettes or e-cigarettes that contain nicotine during adolescence can impact brain development, inhibiting decision-making and self control in adulthood.
Perhaps the most troubling fact is that kids and teens don’t seem to be aware of the risks. Many see vaping as less dangerous than smoking cigarettes, particularly because vaping liquids often come in “fun” flavors, like “sweet tarts” and “candy apple.” Even as health officials worry about the effects of vaping, the Centers for Disease Control reports that the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose from 2.1 million in 2017, to 3.6 million in 2018.
Young people are vulnerable to so many things, from online bullying to getting hurt trying the latest YouTube challenge. It can be stressful and overwhelming for parents to try to keep up. The last thing most of us need is another worrisome warning about a potential danger to kids. But the mounting evidence that vaping is harmful, combined with scary cases like Zohfeld’s, prove that e-cigarette use among kids really does need to be on our radar.
