The U.S. News and World Report – Sophie Balk, MD
“Health care providers – including pediatricians like me who counsel adolescents – have conversations like this more and more often. People often believe that e-cigarettes are a good alternative to regular cigarettes – but are they? Health experts worry about serious downsides of using these devices, especially when it comes to young people. Electronic cigarettes (also known as “e-cigarettes,” “e-cigs,” “hookah pens” or “vape pens”), formally called “electronic nicotine delivery systems” or “ENDS,” usually have the same shape, size and general appearance as traditional cigarettes. E-cigarettes use a battery to vaporize a nicotine-containing solution, creating an aerosol that’s inhaled. The tips of some e-cigarettes have a light that looks like the burning ash of a regular cigarette. Using e-cigarettes is called “vaping.” E-cigarettes don’t contain the thousands of other chemicals – many of them cancer-causing – found in regular cigarettes, but they do contain nicotine, the substance responsible for causing addiction to tobacco products, as well as other chemicals, including flavorings.”(more)