The Southeast Utah Health Department (SEUHD) took time to come into Castle Country Radio to talk about the dangers of vaping. Health Promotion Specialist, Shelli Jo Ness took time from her busy schedule to share those dangers with listeners.

“Vaping is a device that is a battery-powered smoking device basically. You can either fill it with e-juice or some of them already come with an e-cartridge and that is actually equivalent to 20 cigarettes, one full pack of cigarettes the little cartridges, and it’s very tiny so its very, very strong with the nicotine in there,” said Ness. Many folks may think that this is a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes but it is not because of all the chemicals used in vaping.

Unfortunately, vaping has become popular with the youth which is sad especially when they don’t understand all the dangers involved in vaping. “There is actually about 60 different toxins that are inside of the vape juice itself and it all depends if it has nicotine and if it doesn’t but they are all harmful. There are two chemical I do want to touch on, one is formaldehyde, and that’s what they use to preserve dead bodies and you’re also inhaling that, as well as benzyne, and that’s found in car exhaust,” said Ness. There have been individuals who by vaping these chemicals have had collapsed lungs and other medical problems.

The legal age to purchase vaping products is 21 years, it’s the same as buying cigarettes. Parents that are not sure what vaping products look like can stop by the SEUHD to see the various vaping devices. “They can come down and they can touch and feel and I can show them all the vapes that we do have. I mean they can be sitting there along with all of your child’s stuff in their bedroom and its really hard to decide which one is a vape. That’s how much they blend in. They are even in their strings of their sweaters, in their backpacks, they look like pencils, they look like USB devices, they look like White-out, some even look like the inhalers for asthma, and tooth picks as well,” explained Ness. The vape devices come in many shapes and sizes so it’s hard to distinguish what they are without knowing what to look for.

To learn more about the dangers of vaping visit the SEUHD website at https://www.seuhealth.com/