By: Elijah Carson
OwlFeed News Editor

Vaping has always been a very controversial topic, with people either for or against it. 

According to studies, there is a large number of supporters, with approximately 14 million vapers. There are 7 million who use e-cigarettes exclusively, where most believe that vaping is actually safer than real smoking. 

However, studies have shown that all smoking can affect you, even electrical. While there are people who still support vaping, its case wasn’t helped when multiple illnesses have been reported from it, then came the first death.

On August 23, a man in Illinois was reported to have died from vaping. Throughout the rest of the country, there were already 193 cases of illnesses reported from vaping from 22 different states. The next death happened around a couple of days later, where the second person died and the cause was also linked to vaping. Today, we have a total number of 12 different reports of death related to vaping. 

The states affected are California and Kansas, where two people had died, and in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri and Oregon, where only one person from those states has died. In the cases, the age may vary from 17 to 61 years old. 

As of now, there is a total of 805 confirmed cases, located in as much as 38 states and in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Many believe that the cause of the illnesses and the deaths were by the chemicals, where researchers believe that they affect not only the lungs but the blood vessels. The three major components are nicotine, glycerin and propylene glycol. 

In recent news, it appears that vaping scandals have possibly even reached Agua Fria High School. During the week of September 9th, there was a total of two fire drills, where there were alleged claims that people were vaping in the bathroom that triggered the fire alarm. People believe this is true as the school’s response to the anti-vaping posters around the school as evidence of this. 

With all this in mind, it seems as if the government is tired of vaping-related deaths. Earlier in September, the Trump administration announced an idea of a possible ban on all non-tobacco e-cigarettes. After the news on the investigation continuing and the possible ban, the Juul CEO Kevin Burns decided to step down and has suspended all U.S. advertising for vaping. 

Juul also announced that their CEO replacement will be K.C. Crosthwaite, who stated in a press conference at Juul Headquarters in San Francisco, that there are “unacceptable levels of youth usage and eroding public confidence in our industry.”

As the investigation continues and the number of illnesses and deaths related to vaping continues, we‘ll now have to wait to see if the government decides to ban all non-tobacco cigarettes. 

Another question on the public’s mind worth mentioning is, when will these deaths end? Will they go out just as fast as they started, or will this be the new U.S. epidemic?