Remember when e-cigarettes first came out and, although they were weird, it really didn’t seem like a big deal. I mean, you’re just inhaling vapor? That’s way better than smoking nicotine-filled cigarettes, right?

Wrong.

Turns out, many are just as concerned about the “vapors” in the e-cigarettes as they are about nicotine. And, even scarier, twice as many teens are now “vaping” (the slang term for smoking e-cigarettes) than are smoking traditional cigarettes. The e-cigarettes are available for purchase to kids under 18 in many areas and they’re cheaper than cigarettes.

If that isn’t bad enough, no one really knows the harm the vapors are causing.

“People are inhaling some type of chemical vaporized compound into their lungs without really knowing what’s in it,” Dr. Mike Feinstein, a spokesman for the American Lung Association, told TheIndyChannel.com.

“The doses of nicotine that you get could conceivably be higher than what you would get in a typical cigarette,” Dr. Robert Greene of  the Palm Beach Cancer Institute went on to say.

And, when you thought it couldn’t get worse, we’re seeing an increase in poisonings because of e-cigarettes.

e-Cigarette Juice Poisoning Kids

Some kids are ingesting the e-cigarette juice and being poisoned.

According to the Star Tribune, “Minnesota health officials reported 50 cases of children drinking e-cigarette liquid in 2013, a tenfold increase over the previous year.”

There are small vials of “liquid nicotine” that are used with the e-cigarettes and have colorful labels often showing “kid-friendly flavors.”

Unfortunately, child-proof caps and child-resistant packaging are not required by either state or federal regulations for this liquid.

Image: Michael Dorausch