The state’s health department encourages New Yorkers to quit vaping as their New Year’s resolution.
Today, the New York State Department of Health issued a warning that e-cigarettes are “extremely addictive and harmful” for both users and anyone exposed to second-hand vapor.
One in five New York teenagers use e-cigarettes, which can inflict identical lung and heart damage as traditional cigarettes, according to the city’s health department.
But there will be questions about the timing of the news, given that Manhattan’s first legal marijuana dispensary just opened yesterday.
Cannabis is increasingly associated with lung disease and other physical and mental health issues as its recreational usage spreads throughout the United States.
According to Dr. Mary Bassett, the commissioner of health for the state of New York, both e-cigarette users and those who are exposed to secondhand emissions may have long-term health problems.
To prevent long-term harm to people’s health, I urge New Yorkers who use e-cigarettes to make a New Year’s resolution to cease using e-cigarettes and other vaping devices that contain extremely addictive nicotine.
Approximately one in twenty-five New Yorkers (4.1%) use vape devices, compared to one in ten (10.6%) who use traditional cigarettes.
However, according to government data, at least 10 percent of New Yorkers under 24 years old are regular vapers.
Separate national estimates indicate that up to one in five adolescents in the United States use electronic cigarettes.
Officials warn that because vape devices are odorless or odorless, they are more difficult to detect than traditional cigarettes, allowing adolescents to become secretly addicted to nicotine.
Instead, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urges parents to watch for behavioral and physical problems.
Initially believed to be a harmless smoking cessation aid, e-cigarettes have been linked to ‘worrisome changes’ in people’s blood pressure, heart rate, and physical fitness.
Two federally-funded studies conducted in October revealed that these changes occur more rapidly in e-cigarette users than in regular tobacco smokers, which is cause for concern.
After vaping and smoking, the heart rate increases and the body enters ‘fight or flight’ mode. Users of both products experience constriction of the arteries.
Over time, high blood pressure and restricted arteries can deprive the heart of oxygen-rich blood and raise the risk of heart disease.
Americans under the age of 21 are prohibited from purchasing e-cigarettes, the same age restriction as cigarettes and alcohol.
Through fraudulent IDs, slack restrictions at smoke shops, or online, many children are still able to obtain these devices.
The call for New Yorkers to stop vaping comes only one day after the city’s first legal dispensary opened.
Housing Works Cannabis Co. in lower Manhattan opened its doors on Thursday at 4.20 p.m., selling the first legal cannabis order in the state.
Statewide legal marijuana sales are anticipated to generate $1.3 billion, and the state is granting the first 150 licenses for legal sales to individuals and their relatives who have been convicted of narcotics selling.
This, according to Mayor Eric Adams, is a “promising move.”
