Vaping-related illnesses have officially made it not cool to JUUL. Even Apple jumped ship and deleted all vaping-related apps from its store. Now Congress is taking it a step further by passing a law that will prohibit anyone under the age of 21 to legally purchase cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, and any other tobacco products available.
While we don't know the exact side effects of vaping, it's looking very likely that the practice does more harm than good. At least 39 deaths and 2,051 lung injuries have been linked to e-cigarette use. Some of these illnesses are pretty scary — including one known as "popcorn lung".
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A little over a month ago, Donald Trump voiced his concerns about the vaping epidemic, and revealed that the government was going to come up with a plan. "We’re going to be coming out with a very important position on vaping,” Trump said in a press conference. “We have to take care of our kids, most importantly, so we’re going to have an age limit of 21 or so, so we’ll be coming out with something next week very important on vaping.”
In the past year, the use of e-cigarettes has nearly doubled among teenagers, prompting concern from citizens, the government, and even tobacco companies.
The National President and CEO of the American Lung Association, Harold Wimmer, praised the age increase in a statement. But he acknowledges that our government still has room to grow on the issue. "Ultimately, more must be done by both Congress and the Trump Administration if our nation is to halt the youth e-cigarette epidemic," he says.
Currently the legal smoking age 18 years old. While almost half of the states in the U.S. have already raised it to be 21, the new restriction will officially go into effect once the bill is signed, in around nine months.
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