What is juuling?

Many parents are worried about their teens trying smoking. For many years it was cigarettes; however, over the last couple years, E-Cigarettes and vaping have become a more preferred method for teens. There’s a common misconception that it’s healthier for you and that they can help you quit smoking, but this is incorrect.

One of the latest E-Cigarettes to hit the market is incredibly popular because it looks like a USB stick. It’s called the Juul. While it’s intended for people over the age of 18, it seems as though it’s incredibly popular with teens.

What’s Juuling?

Juuling is the term for using the Juul. Unlike many other E-Cigarettes on the market, the Juul offers a sleek, compact design that is popular with today’s minimalistic approach. Not only is it discreet in how it looks, but also in how much smoke it emits—less smoke than similar products.

“The JUUL has two components: the bottom part is the device, which includes the battery and temperature regulation system, and the top part is the e-liquid cartridge that you stick into the device,” Ashley Gould, JUUL’s chief administrative officer, told BuzzFeed News.

“The JUUL isn’t user-modifiable, and has a special temperature-regulation technology to prevent overheating or combustion,” Gould says.

The cartridge is the mouthpiece, being that there are no settings, you simply click it on the device and go. Ironically it comes with a USB charger that you can use to charge through your computer.

The e-liquid cartridge is a closed system, that means there is no need to fill the liquid manually like with other vape pens.  They come in a variety of flavours that contain glycerol and propylene glycol, nicotine, benzoic acid, and flavorants, according to Gould.

How popular is the Juul?

The trendy vape products accounted for 33% of sales in the e-cigarette market in late 2017, as reported by Wells Fargo data.

Another Wells Fargo report stated that the “growth appears to be due to growth with the 18 to 24-year-old age group.”

While the product is marketed to adults over the age of 18, they’re popping up more and more in high schools. It’s caused such an uproar at some high schools that they’re sending home letters to parents.

Is it safe?

The contents of e-cigarettes contain fewer toxins than traditional cigarettes, however, the CDC still warns that vaping can still expose people to chemicals that cause cancer.

According to Dr. Michael Ong, an associate professor of general internal medicine and health services at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, there isn’t enough long-term evidence to show how e-cigarettes affect health. He told Time magazine, “We just don’t have a lot of information as to what the harms potentially are going to be. There likely would be health risks associated with it, though they’re not going to be the same as a traditional cigarette.”

What we do know now is that a Juul pod’s nicotine content is 0.7mL or 59mg/ML per pod, which is about the same as a pack of cigarettes or 200 puffs.

Doctors are concerned that teens who are not smoking yet will be lead to believe that it’s safe and start using the Juul or other e-cigarette products like it. Because these products contain highly addictive nicotine, they could become addicted and then end up smoking.

“Nicotine is highly addictive. It’s unquestionable. And we do not want anyone who isn’t already using nicotine to use the JUUL,” Gould says.

Talk to your kids

Teens need to understand how dangerous nicotine and cigarettes – both e and traditional – can be for their health. Have an open conversation with your kids from a young age about these dangers. If you have a family member or friend who has died or suffered from tobacco-related illnesses, let them know about that.

Talk to them about how to handle peer pressure when it comes to smoking. If they have a friend who doesn’t respect their wishes not to try it maybe they shouldn’t be friends with them.

If you smoke, you should set a positive example for them and quit. At the very least, don’t smoke around them.

If you suspect your child has already started smoking, there are a few red flags to watch out for. These flags include coughing, hoarseness, the smell of smoke on clothing, shortness of breath, and a greater susceptibility to colds.

Don’t overreact, have a conversation and ask them if they’re smoking. There’s a possibility that if their clothes smell like smoke, it could be because they’re hanging around people who smoke.