According to KCTV, there has been a sharp spike in vaping by high school and middle school students which has grabbed the attention of the US Food and Drug Administration. 78 students at Warsaw High took a survey on vaping. When asked if they believed it was healthier than smoking cigarette, 70.5 percent agreed and 29.5 percent disagreed.

  “I believe that the problem stems from people not knowing all the information about it. They think that it’s okay because it’s not actually smoking a cigarette and they see it as the cool thing to do. The sad part is that the e-juice still produces carcinogenic compounds that may lead to serious health issues down the road,” health teacher Justine Howell said.

  Yet when students were asked if they thought non-nicotine vaping was a healthy outlet, 52.6 percent disagreed and only 47.4 percent agreed.

  “Non-nicotine vaping is still dangerous so even as an outlet for students, it’s not a smart one. There are still chemicals and substances being put into the body that shouldn’t be and a lot of times, it makes things worse in the long run. There are so many other outlets that students should be using, such as exercise, music, hobbies, sports, art, etc.,” Howell said.

“Anything besides air going into your lungs is bad so yeah I think it is unhealthy,” senior Kaylee Moody said.

Many students either participate themselves or know of someone who does for the art side of vaping. Which is referred to as smoke tricks, 54.4% said they believed people do participate in vaping for the art side of it and 45.6% disagreed.

“I like to try and manipulate the smoke, like rings, tornadoes and waterfalls,” Moody said.

Senior Kylee Myers believes that vaping is better than smoking cigarettes but doesn’t believe that it should be an outlet for students.

  “I think people believe it’s cool and that their friends will think they’re cool too,” Myers said.

  According to Teen Vogue, who participated in a research activity that involved e-cigarettes, stated that E-Cigs are addictive and have the same nicotine found in cigarettes.

  “Without FDA regulations, we haven’t been able to know which ingredients e-cigarettes contain. Yet initial lab tests the FDA carried out in 2009 found measurable levels of toxic carcinogens including an ingredient common in antifreeze,” Teen Vogue writer Julia Felsenthal said.

  “The 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey noted that 1.7 million high school students said they had used e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days. The alarming trend is prompting concerns that some companies are taking direct aim at teenagers by tailoring and marketing e-cigarettes and vaping products to younger users,” authors at CNN wire said.

  With the popularity of vaping growing in middle and high schools, the health curriculum has had to change to fit to that.

  “We cover vaping in eighth grade health during the Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug unit. It is not something that I have always done, but it is becoming more and more popular with little information being given to the public, so I feel like it is something that students need to know about. The sad thing is that we don’t know a lot about it. Like I said before, the long term health effects are not yet known,” Howell said.