Many teens and adults use vape pens or cigarettes to “cure” stress, but they don’t know it leads to more stress. It has been a great problem for years and many students even smoke while at school. The question is which is worse to use, vapes or cigarettes? Both smoking pens are very bad to use, but many students don’t know to be aware of either smoking or vaping.

Cigarettes have been used by many adults and more than 16 million Americans are living with the disease. Smoking leads to diseases, and disabilities and harms almost every organ in the body. Smoking also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, risk tuberculosis, and COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Secondhand smoking causes 41K deaths among nonsmoking adults and 400 deaths in infants each year. 4.5 percent of middle schoolers smoke each year and 16.5 percent of high schoolers smoke each year. PE teacher, Mr. Burleson said students should stop right away and should get help from rehab and adults.

A vape pen is an e-cigarette that heats up nicotine, flavoring, propylene glycol, and other things. Vaping can cause breathing problems, organ damage, lung scarring, EVALI, addiction, cigarette smoking, the vape battery exploding, and cancer. EVALI is a serious lung condition that gives the smoker diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and fast heartbeats. Your lungs can heal from some of the lung damage, and vaping while you are pregnant can cause brain damage to the fetus. According to research by Medical News Today, 2.55 million students vape every year, and 55 million people vaped in 2021.

In Team Tambo, 61.5% of interview students think vaping is worse and 38.5% think smoking is worse. One student, Aubrielle Washington, said,” Smoking is worse. You can develop life-threatening diseases like lung cancer, and it has long-term effects on your lungs and how you breathe. Not only this, it contains addicting chemicals, so it’s difficult to stop once you have started. On the other hand, vapes contain fewer chemicals, so they aren’t as harmful as cigarettes. Although this is true, they still damage your health.“ According to studies by Cross River Therapy, vaping is not as harmful as smoking. However, there is still information to learn about vaping and its long-term effects.

In conclusion, vaping is not as bad as smoking. They are both still extremely harmful to your health and you should warn everyone about doing these things. If you see any students smoking, tell an adult since it is a serious problem. If you are smoking and/or vaping, please stop, it will be a problem in the future.