Society

Vaping teenagers are increasingly affected by serious lung diseases. The trendy fruit flavors that manufacturers put into vapes thus take on a very bitter aftertaste.

The Dutch Society of Pediatrics is therefore sounding the alarm as in 2023 fourteen children and adolescents ended up in the hospital because of their vape addiction. 

Since these disposable vapes with sweet fruit flavors, with or without nicotine, are a relatively new phenomenon of recent years, it was not initially immediately considered whether a patient brought into the hospital is a vaper or not. But that is increasingly changing, Marc Raes, a pediatrician at Jessa Hospital (Belgium), states in Het Nieuwsblad. “Until today, it was not a reflex to ask the young patient if he or she happened to be a vaper,” he echoes.

The 14 young Dutch people who had to be hospitalized in 2023 were struggling with shortness of breath, palpitations, severely reduced lung function, coughing up blood, as well as a pneumothorax and an attack of asthma provoked by vaping. So warns the Dutch Society for Pediatrics.

It is not yet possible for the medical community to define the real long-term health effects of vapers given the only recently emerged hype. Indeed, in the scientific literature, there is currently very little to be found regarding vaping and the direct link with lung disease. What has already been scientifically proven is the harmful effect of nicotine on minors. Nicotine, which is very often contained in e-cigarettes, has a harmful effect on the brain during adolescence. Animal studies proved that. The brains of adolescents are also more susceptible to addiction, according to 'Gezond Leven'. Moreover, several recent studies in laboratory animals indicate that vaping can cause DNA damage, and DNA damage can lead to cancer.

(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: Gezond Leven - NVK - Telegraaf - Nieuwsblad/Illustration picture by Rich Smith for Unsplash)