Welcome to Vaping 101. As a physician and a parent, I know that you have questions about vaping. This comprehensive guide was designed to answer all of your questions and more. It will educate you on vaping and arm you with the information you need to educate your family and friends in hopes that they decide to stop or, hopefully, never even start to use electronic cigarettes.

This guide contains a review of the latest research and surveys to provide the most accurate information, but more importantly, we break it down into plain language so that you and your teens (or young adults) will both be able to understand why vaping is such a dangerous activity.

We have spent the past several months educating the public at town hall gatherings. After speaking with hundreds of school nurses, teachers, students, and concerned parents about the vaping epidemic, we are confident that this guide will answer all your questions.

The vaping epidemic is real. Here are some sobering statistics: The 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), a large-scale survey of teens conducted by the CDC and FDA, reported that more than five million students reported they had used e-cigarettes within the past 30 days and that one million report they use them on a daily basis. This means that one in four high school students is vaping and one in 10 middle school students is vaping.

Although vaping was initially introduced in America as an alternate method for current cigarette smokers to attempt to quit smoking, it has become a recreational activity and the leading vehicle by which teenagers are introduced to tobacco and nicotine.

As of January 21, 2020, more than 2,700 cases of e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI) requiring hospitalization have been reported in the US, with 60 fatalities confirmed by the CDC. Current data suggests a strong association between these hospitalizations and e-cigarette liquids containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), vitamin E, or both. A recent study of lung fluid from more than 50 EVALI patients identified vitamin E, plant oils such as coconut oil, triglyceride oil, and petroleum particles. Non-hospitalized cases of EVALI are not being reported, but we do know the number of individuals experiencing respiratory illness that does not require a hospital stay is greater than the cases that do require hospitalization.

Parents who want to actively prevent their children from the risks of vaping and the lifelong effects of nicotine addiction must first arm themselves with knowledge about vaping and nicotine. We lay the groundwork for your success by using a physician’s expertise to make sense of the latest reports from the CDC and the current research around the world. This guide summarizes that information in easy-to-digest questions and answers to give you the tools you need to engage your teenagers (and anyone else) in healthy discussion on the risks and consequences of vaping.