White smoke fills the air with sweet scents of juicy fruit and then disappears without a trace; a student inhales the vapor through a handheld electronic cigarette similar to smoking tobacco. In 2014 the term ‘vape’  was coined for e-cigarettes as they became more popular.

Although the legal age to buy an e-cigarette is 18, a survey conducted by Monitoring the Future found that 13.3 percent of eighth graders, 23.9 percent of sophomores and 28 percent of seniors admitted to vaping in 2017. The majority vaped only flavored e-liquid, but vaping nicotine and marijuana also increased as students became older.

“The only benefit I can see [is] how you can choose your nicotine level or that you can choose to not have any nicotine in it [at all],” school nurse Alicia Yerganian said. “Because of the fact that there’s just not enough studies, we don’t know enough about [e-cigarettes]. They’re too new to really know what the long term effect on society is going to be health wise.”

Because there isn’t widespread knowledge of the possible health risks e-cigarettes may induce, people have to do research of their own to become knowledgeable on the subject.

“More places are banning e-cigarettes than they used to because they are finding out that nicotine is in the secondhand smoke just as it is in cigarettes,” Nottingham said. “I know that they found carcinogen in some, so being around someone who’s smoking e-cigarettes does not mean ‘Oh, well you’re on e-cigarettes so it’s OK,’ it’s not. It’s still second-hand smoke.”

Although the nurses have expressed caution to the idea of e-cigarettes, senior Ryan Rogers resorted to vaping after he went into withdrawals craving nicotine soon after he quit tobacco.

“I have [an e-cigarette] but I don’t think they’re bad or anything and you can get different flavors and [they] taste good,” Rogers said. “I’ll say e-cigs have less chemicals than cigarettes. If you want to quit smoking I’d use one. I just needed a different source of nicotine and I didn’t want to dip anymore.”

Originally e-cigarettes were created to help people quit smoking cigarettes, but as time went on people became addicted to them because of the nicotine.

“I encourage others to not smoke [at all, but] if they really can’t, then I feel like vaping is where to go,” sophomore Natalie Martinez said. “I have friends that vape and I’d rather see them vaping than smoking actual cigarettes and marijuana. [I know] nicotine isn’t the healthiest drug but [it] also isn’t as bad as marijuana, so in a way vaping is better.”

In July of 2009, the FDA found chemicals in e-cigarettes that could cause health risks to the body. One is Diacetyl, which can result in a lung disease also known as a “popcorn lung,” and another was Formaldehyde, a type of carcinogen that can cause cancer. Even the liquid flavoring can be a concern as it has the FEMA GRAS status that only applies to food and not things that are inhaled.

“[In] the e-cigarettes, you can still get nicotine from them and so you’re still consuming that chemical that makes it so addictive,” Yerganian said. “They would often say marijuana is a gateway drug, because they would want to lead you into wanting to use other types of substances. How do we know these e-cigarettes aren’t going to lead you into wanting to do something more?”

Yerganian first realized how dangerous nicotine can be when she came across the Investigation Discovery channel and watched a woman try to poison her husband by putting liquid nicotine into his drink.

“They say nicotine by itself is very deadly,” Yerganian said. “So if by consuming something that you can put into someone’s drink which could poison them and kill them, [then why’re] you putting that into something you’re breathing in? That in itself should tell you it’s poison.”