Up In The Clouds

The podcast discusses the trends, perceptions, and impacts of vaping on college life. It highlights the prevalence of vaping among college students and the ease of access to vapes. The podcast also emphasizes the lack of knowledge about the harmful chemicals and metals in vapes, as well as the potential long-term effects. It explores the addictive nature of vaping and its association with anxiety, depression, and academic performance. The podcast also mentions the targeting of vape ads towards teens and the misleading marketing tactics used by vape companies. Overall, it aims to raise awareness about the dangers of vaping and encourage listeners to make safer choices. Hi I'm Fania and I'm Sarah. You are listening to Up in the Clouds. This is the show where we unravel the vape haze and separate facts from fumes. In this episode we will explore the trends, perceptions, and impacts of vaping on college life. Vaping and college students intersects with two targets of Sustainable Development Goal 3 which are 3.5 Substance Abuse and 3.8 Tobacco Control. Now that we know vaping is such a critical issue let's get into the podcast. So Sarah do you see a lot of people around campus vaping or smoking e-cigarettes? Yeah I do. I think vaping isn't just about smoking anymore. It's become a trend and a lot of people think it's just cool to vape. I agree rather than them just being like high from smoking or something they are more interested in blowing those rings and making the different structures. If you don't do that you're not cool and this trend is attracting more and more youngsters to start vaping. Did you know 1 in 10 high school and middle school students vape as stated by FDA and CDC. But I thought you had to be about 21 to get the vape. So how are these friends getting access to it so easily? Lots of kids can just get their friends or siblings who are 21 or older to buy them for them but they can also find a vape shop that doesn't cart. Oh my god. The odds are someone that they know knows of a vape shop that doesn't cart. This pattern of peer influence and social networks shaping vaping behavior among college students is studied by the researcher Jones and his study conducted in 2022. So it's not just the fault of these innocent kids who are following the wrong path. It's these adults who are breaking the law helping them. Oh my god it is everywhere. It is becoming a growing concern or rather a nice thing. Do you think these kids even know what's inside vapes that they're inhaling? That's a really good question. I don't think most people know what is inside it. People think it's just vapor that they're inhaling because it's named vape right? But in reality it's aerosol. So I think the devices should be called aerosol. So at least people know the shit they're putting inside their bodies. What is this aerosol? Aerosol is a mix of tiny particles suspended in air or gas. It's like the mist from a spray can. So is it like a deodorant? I mean you can think about it like that because vapor is just gas but aerosol is particles with the gas. So it's like little bits of crap that you're putting inside your lungs and your alveoli cannot even absorb them. So these little bits are going inside your lungs and just jumping off from one end to another. Ew. Yeah and these vapes were introduced for a good cause. Can you believe that? Now what? They were introduced a decade ago in the hope that they would help people quit smoking or be more safe. But in reality vaping among college students has become so prevalent that it has surpassed cigarette smoking rates according to the researcher and data analyst Sonji. But if there are so many bad things about vapes what makes it so addictive that people just keep coming back and back and back to it? So the nicotine in the vapes makes them addictive but a factor that I think makes it worse is that so many people vape. When you walk through campus there is always someone vaping and there have been many times that I've been walking on campus and someone's blown a big cloud of vape at me without even noticing. Can't deny it hasn't happened to me. I think it's also the variety of flavors that attracts more people towards it. Oh my god the flavors. Yes. Lush ice, blueberry, watermelon, mango, pineapple. There are like infinite choices. But did you know that these flavors that people are crazy over are the real devils behind vapes being so harmful? No way. Are you for real? Yes. These flavors are actually purely made out of chemicals. Kids are so young and they think oh it's mango so it's made out of mango extract. It's so healthy. But nope. It is chemicals. Most of these flavors contain propylene glycol which produces the smoke. It is the same chemical used in smoke machines at concerts. Would you want to inhale all of that smoke inside your body? No I would not. That sounds disgusting. And apparently when you inhale you're actually breathing in metals like nickel, chromium, and lead. What the? These metals are deposited in your body and cause cancer and lead to heart diseases. But you know vaping does not just have harmful effects on your lungs like lung injury and COPD. It's also shown that people who vape are more likely to have symptoms of anxiety, depression, and students who vape perform as well academically. Oh my god. So these vapes are not just leading you to a path of death but also to the path of depression. Oh god. I always hear people say that they chose vapes or choose vaping because it is safer than cigarettes. But then I also hear about e-cigarette or vaping use associated lung injury. So are vapes actually better for you? Technically yeah vapes are better for you than cigarettes but cigarettes are so horrible for you that vapes are only slightly better. They both can do horrible things to your lungs, mind, and body. And since vapes are so new nobody really knows anything about the long-term effects of vaping on your body. Oh so it's like walking inside a dark room and you don't know what's around you or what's at the end of it. Wow this is so awful. But what makes vapes so appealing if it has so many dis-benefits? I see I also see a lot of international students doing it nowadays. So if there's so much bad stuff why would anyone? A lot of times people just vape as a coping mechanism for being stressed and coming to a new country or place is definitely a very stressful thing especially for international students. And if so many people are vaping here it might just seem like an easy solution but then it becomes addictive and hard to quit. So it's like a never-ending cycle of being addicted and stressed. So it's like drowning in the ocean and not knowing how to swim back. But I see a lot of youngsters vape nowadays and I don't understand how do they get to know about it or how do they know this exists in the world? A lot of vape companies do target their ads to teens and students since those are the people that they know will get addicted and want to vape more. But I see a lot of ads for vapes mostly on Instagram but also on TikTok and many vape ads advertise vapes as something that will help you be less stressed and sleep better. There's this one brand called Cloudy that makes vapes with no nicotine but they claim that these vapes will help you sleep better and make you feel better. They advertise these as vapes but then they say in a disclaimer that you shouldn't inhale them even though that's what they made them. Oh so they're straight up lying to our faces wow that's crazy. Vape companies really do thrive on tricking their customers. Yeah they do. I hope we are not the ones being tricked. Hopefully now you understand the backstory of what goes on within the vape company. And what goes on inside these vapes. We hope this new learned information will help you stay safer out there. Thanks for listening. Bye. More information on vaping can be found in the podcast by science nurses. Vaping is it really that bad? It can also be found on this article vaping and mental health outcomes among college students a longitudinal study by Kim S. in the journal of affective disorders. The background music for this podcast is Pure Imagination by Rookwon Lee. Thank you for listening to us today.