Before COVID-19 and the "new normal" of quarantining, Zoom meetings, telecommuting, remote learning and social-distancing, e-cigarette usage was at an all-time high. The use of e-cigarettes has been especially prevalent among adolescents and young adults. Circa 2015, there was a shift in e-cigarette usage from adults trying to quit smoking cigarettes to youth who were nonsmokers to begin with. See The Guardian, "How e-cigarettes went from celebrity accessory to product non grata." Thanks to e-cigarette manufacturers, including leading e-cigarette company, JUUL Labs Inc., vaping has plagued the nation's youth. Indeed, in 2018, the U.S. Surgeon General officially declared youth vaping an "epidemic." See "Surgeon General's Advisory on E-cigarette Use Among Youth." Presently, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) analysis of the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey, "[19.6% of high school students (3.02 million) and 4.7% of middle school students (550,000) reported current e-cigarette use." See "CDC E-cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students—United States 2020," available online at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e1.htm).

The Effects of Vaping

We are acutely aware of the havoc nicotine exposure can wreak on a person. For instance, studies have shown that in pregnant women, nicotine can cross the placental barrier and can result in serious fetal and post-natal injuries, such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and altered corpus callosum. See "2016 Surgeon General's Report: E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults." Likewise, for adolescents, nicotine exposure can impair brain development, lead to addiction, and more.