Will Kids Start Using Electronic Cigarettes?

Many smokers admit to having started using tobacco when they were young, some even too young to purchase tobacco cigarettes legally. In the midst of the whole discussion about electronic cigarettes, there is a grounds well of concern regarding the use of electronic cigarettes by children and teenagers. Nobody wants children and teenagers to start using electronic cigarettes as most contain nicotine, which is highly addictive in any form. The appeal of tobacco cigarettes to youngsters has always been the appearance of being an adult. Smoking cigarettes is adult behavior and that makes it cool in the mind of a youngster.

Will use of electronic cigarettes have the same allure?

Nobody knows the real answer to this question other than by relying on personal observation. Are there groups of teenagers standing around on street corners using electronic cigarettes? The answer to this question is probably different in various cities across the globe, but it’s a good question to ponder.  Noticing actual use of electronic cigarettes by youngsters is the first place to start in any discussion about regulating electronic cigarettes to protect potential underage users. And applying a well-known historical precedent that shows unequivocally that regulation did not deter underage tobacco smokers it could be assumed that regulation of electronic cigarettes will not be 100% successful either. Kids will be kids. If a youngster is determined to explore the use of electronic cigarettes he or she will find a way to do so, regulation or no regulation.

Will Regulation Of Electronic Cigarettes Succeed?

Placing legal constraints on the sale and use of electronic cigarettes is a highly controversial topic, for many complicated reasons. Users of electronic cigarettes are passionate about the relatively new alternative to tobacco use, and fear the loss of their rights as vapers. Watching tobacco smokers losing the right to smoke cigarettes in public, including outdoor smoking in some municipalities, vapers have legitimate reason for concern.  But there is really no comparison between electronic cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes in the most important area of concern, which is, of course, secondhand smoke. There is no secondhand smoke with electronic cigarettes because there is no smoke being produced at all. Electronic cigarettes are the smokeless alternative and they do not endanger the health of anyone in the vicinity of the vaper. Whether or not a vaper is causing any personal harm to him or herself by the use of electronic cigarettes, people nearby have no exposure to smoke at all because there is no smoke, there is only water vapor. Regulation of electronic cigarettes to protect underage users or other people in the vicinity of vapers does not show legitimate promise.