Almost every time you step out of a mall or a public building it is almost guaranteed that you will walk into a cloud of smoke. While a foul smelling cloud of cigarette smoke used to hit you, now you may often be hit with a sweeter smell, possibly strawberry or grape.  While you may not know what that large cloud of smoke is, it’s from a vape.

A vape, along with the juul, is a type of e-cig and they’re becoming the new popular way of smoking. While these e-cigs were put on the market to help adult smokers quit, they have now become a popular item for teens who have never smoked. Although these forms of smoking could have been a better alternative for the adult smokers, it is a dangerous thing to be picked up by teens “because it’s cool.”

Vapes are loaded with juices.  The juices can have a nicotine range of 3mg up to 18mg. However most commercial vape juices advertise as 0% nicotine.  However, the juul uses “pods.” Each of these contain as much nicotine as one pack of cigarettes. The major thing that attracts teens to e-cigs is that they come in many different flavors.  These flavors range from fruity, to desserts, to mint.

Because these forms of smoking are still so new, researchers only know a little bit about how dangerous the e-cigs are.  As of right now, they know that the coils inside the e-cigs can contaminate the vape juices with many metals not meant to be ingested.  Some of these metals include lead, chromium, manganese and nickel.  While the  Juul may not have these metals, the amount of nicotine is enough to be afraid of.

The FDA is currently working on removing these attractive flavors in an attempt to crack down on the epidemic.  They have the fruit flavored Juul pods from many gas stations, but are having a harder time removing the vape juices from stores.  Do yourself a favor, and don’t start this habit. You may think its cool joining the pact now, but down the road the “pact” won’t be healthy.