Vapor is not safer!
By Autumn Kehler ‘25, staff writer and layout and design
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Statistics show that over 5.3 million students vape. That alarming number was one of many shared during Evangelical Community Hospital’s vaping presentation to students in seventh through tenth grades on January 30.
Vaping has severely increased in recent years and proposes endless health risks to people of any age. In fact, vaping has become so popular that hospital educators, Ann Dzwonchyk and Deana Carson, felt that it was necessary to travel to local schools to teach about the risks of vaping. The speakers noted that it is a fairly new phenomenon that people think that vaping isn’t as bad as smoking. Some even say that it is a good alternative, and not too harmful. However, Dzwonchyk and Carson put those ideas to shame, pointing out that vaping contains the same number of chemicals as cigarettes do in addition to having its own set of dangers.
“Vaping is the most needed education,” stated Dzwonchyk about the importance of the program.
She explained that they had to revamp their program to include vaping, since it has become so popular with teens. She adds that seeing vapes “in a controlled area” can take away the curiosity from teens. The logic is that if teens see what vapes and similar products look like, then they might not be as tempted to try it for themselves, since they already know how harmful it is.
Evangelical Hospital educators Ann Dzwonchyk, far left, and Deana Carson, far right, discuss the effects of over 500 chemicals found in cigarette smoke on lungs. Students include (from left to right) Alaina Combs, sophomore; Mikaela Hanko, junior; and Kacey Hine, sophomore. Dzwonchyk and Carson explained the dangers of smoking and vaping to students in seventh through tenth grades.
(Submitted photo)
Dzwonchyk and Carson displayed pig lungs to students to demonstrate the difference between a nonsmoker and a smoker. They attached them to a machine that pumps air into the lungs to simulate breathing in oxygen. The non-smoking pig lungs were perfectly pink and were able to take in a lot of oxygen; however, the other lungs were simulating someone who has been smoking for 15 years. Those lungs were black and could barely take in any air at all. They used that example to show that smoking and vaping will not only affect you now, but will in the future. Dzwonchyk explained, “The long term effects could result in life threatening consequences, such as lung cancer.” Even though people think that their choices won’t affect them later, that is not the case with smoking and vaping.
Displaying numerous designs, colors, and types of vapes, the speakers discussed how companies create vapes to appeal to a younger audience to get them addicted for a long time. Since a lot of kids weren’t smoking cigarettes, Dzwonchyk elaborated that companies “needed to find another way to trick the younger generation into trying something new.” In that way, someone may try a vape when they were in high school, and then be buying them for the rest of their lives.
Subsequently, companies have also used candy cigarettes as a way to make younger kids think that smoking is cool and want to try it out. Unlike cigarettes Dzwonchyk described that, “Vape companies are not regulated and are not required to list everything that they are putting in their products.” For example, companies say that their vapes have “no nicotine,” but in reality they are lying for marketing purposes. It is important for teens to be smarter than the marketing. In fact, some teens are more addicted to their vapes than older people are to their cigarettes.
Dzwonchyk highlighted that it is much easier to pick up a vape than to put it down. However, she wants students to know that, “You can always stop but it’s never easy.”
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