As if teenagers aren't already engaged in the potentially dangerous habit of smoking electronic cigarettes with e-juice, they are now taking it one step further. The latest trends in e-juice among teens are dripping, the act of applying the e-juice directly to the heated coils and inhaling the resulting vapor. This makes the flavor of the liquid much stronger, satisfying teenagers' sense of smell.
Teen Dripping Studies A study performed at Yale University showed that dripping is on the rise among teenagers across the United States. Their research determined that when teens drip e-juice it may be more harmful to them than it would be if they smoked it the traditional way. It is said to increase how many toxins their bodies are exposed to. These toxins include: acrolein formaldehyde acetaldehyde Dripping them causes the nicotine in the juice to be even more harmful to smokers, especially teenagers. Doctors suspect that the increased potency of the nicotine would cause brain damage in teens because their brains are still developing. In fact, Virginia Commonwealth University conducted research proving that dripping at temperatures between 266 degrees and 662 degrees leads to the emission of highly toxic chemicals. Dripping has become so easy for teenagers to do partly because they have the ability to easily put together their own coils at home. In fact, when a team of Yale researchers surveyed local high school students they found that for every four, one had tried dripping. Despite the fact that it is illegal for a minor to own an electronic cigarette in Connecticut, the Yale study proves that teenagers know how to get around that. Reasons for Dripping Teenagers who have tried dripping have stated various reasons for doing so. Aside from a stronger vapor, other reasons for dripping include: making the e-juice flavors taste stronger the desire for a stronger throat hit than traditional e-cigarette smoking provides As with anything new, there are many teenagers that have tried dripping just because they were curious to see what the experience is like. Some say that dripping has been a thing since the beginning of electronic cigarettes. It has been pointed out that when they were first introduced on the market there were no tanks to hold the e-liquid and that open-system atomizers were used, making dripping necessary in order to smoke an electronic cigarette. However, the more recently released e-cigarettes have eliminated the need for dripping. Medical researchers have stated that while smoking e-cigarettes are still technically thought to be safer than smoking traditional cigarettes, the act of dripping does not make e-cigarettes safer to smoke. Conclusion Overall, according to the AAP Journal, of all the 1080 e-cigarette high school aged users, 26.1% of them admitted that the reason they used e-cigarettes was so they could drip. The journal also reported that the majority of teenaged e-cigarette smokers that use them the most frequently were more inclined to try dripping than those who don't use them frequently. Only time will tell how teenagers continue to use e-cigarettes. |
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