Research paper on e-cigarettes

the ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

For this assignment, you will write an argumentative paper that finishes the work you started during your Annotated Bibliography. You’ve already completed the bulk of your research, so your final steps are to write, workshop, and revise your essay.

Due Date: Designated Final Time (see assignment schedule)

Your essay must fulfill the following requirements:

• Support a claim of value, policy, or fact (it must have a claim that is arguable!)
• Follow the Toulmin, Aristotelian, OR Rogerian approaches to argument, and note this in your outline
• Fill 7-10 pages (no fewer than seven full pages)
• Argue for a narrowed version of your research topic
• Offer and refute/concede the opposing viewpoint (including any necessary sources for support)
• Rely on at least 6 credible sources (you may use secondary, less credible, sources in addition to these 6, but not in place of them)
• Include a separate “Works Cited” at the end of the paper, which does NOT count toward your 7-10 pages

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

Your essay must follow our usual formatting: twelve-point, Times New Roman, 1” margins, double- spaced, MLA style with headers.

• Please do all your revisions before turning in your paper. Poor grammar, essay structure, misspellings, vague topic sentences, poor transitions, clunky paragraph construction, etc. will lower your grade.

OUTLINE

“E-Cigarettes: Are They Really Better?” Outline

Aristotelian

Thesis: E-cigarettes were supposed to be a better alternative to cigarettes. Although, they seem to be the healthier option, they have caused bigger problems and at the end of the day, they are they bigger problem now.

• What are e-cigarettes?
  1. Use data and definitions from:
     1. Krishnan-Sarin, Suchitra. What You Should Know about Vaping and e-Cigarettes. What You Should Know about Vaping and e-Cigarettes | Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, TED, 5 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=a63t8r70QN0.
        1. “The latest craze is something that may not yet be on everyone’s radar as a serious health concern. And that is the newfound popularity of vaping or inhaling sweet aerosols produced by vaporizing e-liquids and e-cigarettes.”
        2. “E-cigarettes or vapes are flying off the shelves like candy.”
        3. “This year [2019] the e-cigarette market is expected to drive $26 billion in sales worldwide. And over the next six years, that volume is expected to double.”
        4. “There was a 900% growth in the use of e-cigarettes by youth between 2012 and 2015.”
        5. Recent estimates show that approximately 3.6 million high school and middle school students have used e-cigarettes in the U.S.
        6. The FDA classifies these devices as tobacco products but the science for these new devices has not been able to keep up with the market so regulations on the devices are also falling behind. In most states, you have to be 18 to purchase an e-cigarette or vape device and in some states, you must be 21.
        7. Teens are impulsive and want to try new things. There are over 15,000 flavors to choose from with hundreds of devices ranging in virtually any color. This fits into exactly what a teen would want to make them “cool” around their peers.
        8. Some kinds of devices are cigarette-like (e-cigarettes), tank systems that are also called pens, and modified devices also called mods which seem to be the more popular ones among teens.
        9. An example of one of the most popular “mods” with teens is called the JUUL.
        10. It not only looks like a USB device, but it can also be plugged into a USB outlet to charge. Many teens aren’t even aware that these devices are e-cigarettes which leads to terms like “vaping” and “JUULing”
        11. Many devices, including JUUL, are so discrete and produce such little vapor that teens are using them in classrooms and hiding them in easy places.
        12. JUULing
        13. Many teens think that these devices produce water vapor and therefore are safe to use. However, the devices don’t even produce a vapor, they produce an aerosol. Aerosols contain many finely suspended particles of liquids and gases that are created from whatever is in the e-liquid (the solution that is being inhaled by the user).
        14. So, what is in the e-liquid? Many e-liquids contain propylene, glycol, and glycerin which are solvents that are known to be safe to consume when eaten. However, we know very little about their safety with long-term inhalational exposure.
        15. The e-liquid or the aerosols produces can also contain metallic particles like chromium, cadmium, and lead which are produced from the heating coils in many devices and are also known to have many toxic effects on vital organs.
        16. Exposure of the teen brain to nicotine is also very concerning.
        17. Many devices contain the amount of nicotine that is in a full pack of cigarettes.
        18. Teens who use e-cigarettes regularly report symptoms of craving or feeling anxious when they don’t have their e-cigarettes which are all hallmarks of a behavioral addiction.
        19. These devices and what they produce are not only addictive, but they also affect many other organs in the body. Chronic exposure to nicotine decreases the function of many organs such as the lungs, the brain, and the heart while also decreasing function in other things like the gastrointestinal system, joints, muscles, blood, and the endocrine system.
        20. For example, chronic exposure to nicotine decrease the flexibility of the blood vessels and changes how the heart responds to acute challenges like stress.
        21. Nicotine is a very well-established neurotoxin, and it decreases learning, memory, and attention processes and increases hyperactivity symptoms.
        22. Teens who use tobacco products are more likely to use marijuana and alcohol and also develop depression and anxiety as a teen and as an adult. So, use of e-cigarettes can lead to other addictions and other mental and physical health problems.
        23. “Our lack of vigilance in the earlier years around cigarette smoking, led to a cigarette epidemic and many, many, cigarette related diseases. We do not want to repeat the same mistakes with e-cigarettes”
        24. “Do smokers really need 15,000 kid-friendly flavors to quit smoking? Do they need so many different kinds of devices?”
        25. While these devices may show to produce less toxins than cigarettes, they are certainly not harmless and the fact that their long-term effects are still unknown should make them worse.
     2. Khan, Samir. Vaping: What You Should Know | Samir Khan | TEDxAshburyCollege. Vaping: What You Should Know, TEDx Talks, 27 Jan. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNYEbnt_g38.
        1. There are fewer and less carcinogens in e-cigarettes when compared to tobacco cigarettes. Saying e-cigarettes are less harmful still isn’t enough because of the many health complications and deaths that come along with tobacco cigarettes.
        2. “So, it [nicotine] creates a short term pleasure but it creates that long term wiring or rewiring of your brain that leads to a habit turning into a compulsion and a compulsion means you’re taking it even if you don’t want to take it, you’re taking it knowing that it is harmful to you, and you’re starting to miss other things that you should be doing because you want to take it. And that’s how you know you have a dependency, or you have an addiction.”
        3. Spreading awareness also opens questions on what the government should do about these devices.
           1. “Should they ban flavors? Should they reduce the advertising? Should they reduce certain kinds of advertising? Should they standardize the products? Should they make it only available with prescription from a doctor?”

• Instead of solving the problem of cigarette addiction, e-cigarettes have become a much bigger problem than their “natural” counterparts.
  1. E-cigarettes have become a problem among teens.
     1. Present data from
        1. Marynak, Kristy L., MPP, et al. “National and State Trends in Sales of Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes, U.S., 2011–2015.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 53, no. 1, 2017, pp. 96–101. July, 2017.
        2. Roditis, Maria L, and Halpern-Felsher, Bonnie. “Adolescents’ Perceptions of Risks and Benefits of Conventional Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes, and Marijuana: A Qualitative Analysis.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 57, no. 2, 2015, pp. 179–185. August, 2015.
     2. The flavoring of the devices appeal to teens and get users addicted much faster than cigarettes.
        1. Present data from
           1. Drazen, Jeffrey M, et al. “The Dangerous Flavors of E-Cigarettes.” The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 380, no. 7, 2019, pp. 679–680. February, 2019, doi: 10.1056/NEJMe1900484
        2. E-cigarettes have also caused an environmental problem with the amount of waste and pollution they may produce.
           107. Lerner, Chad A, et al. “Environmental Health Hazards of e-Cigarettes and Their Components: Oxidants and Copper in e-Cigarette Aerosols.” Environmental Pollution (1987), vol. 198, 2015, pp. 100–107. December, 2014.

• E-cigarettes are still the healthier alternative.
  295. Fairchild, Amy L, et al. “The Renormalization of Smoking? E-Cigarettes and the Tobacco ‘Endgame.’” The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 370, no. 4, 2014, pp. 293–295. January, 2014, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1313940
• We still don’t know what the long-term effects of e-cigarettes are because they are so new. Also, they seem to be used a lot by teenagers and younger adults because of the flavoring of the vapor which appeals to the younger crowd and makes the devices seem “harmless”.
  185. Roditis, Maria L, and Halpern-Felsher, Bonnie. “Adolescents’ Perceptions of Risks and Benefits of Conventional Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes, and Marijuana: A Qualitative Analysis.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 57, no. 2, 2015, pp. 179–185. August, 2015.
• Although e-cigarettes are the healthier option based on studies now, there is also evidence of increased usage in teens and we still don’t know the long-term effects of the devices. So, did these devices really serve their purpose in decreases cigarette smoking and if so, at what cost?

DRAFT

E-Cigarettes: Are They Really Better?

It seems as if everything we do, or use is starting to have an electronic alternative. Some examples being stove tops, online classes, home security, and even sports. There are arguable pros and cons for every electronic alternative, and it seems that these few examples provide many benefits some may even be the better counterpart. However, not all electronic alternatives may be the better counterpart. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have created a rapidly growing industry that was supposed to produce devices to be used as a healthier alternative to help cigarette smokers quit smoking tobacco but, they have created a much bigger problem by appealing to youth and creating a whole new addiction that could be worse than the one they were supposed to stop. More importantly, because these devices are so new, there is very little research on the long-term effects and if they are really “healthier” than tobacco cigarettes.

So, what are e-cigarettes? E-cigarettes are electrically charged devices that heat up a liquid (called e-liquid) into an aerosol that the user inhales and exhales (smokefree.gov). Many e-liquids typically contain nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerin, flavorings, and other chemicals (smokefree.gov). There are over 15,000 kid-friendly e-liquid flavors being sold on the market and hundreds of devices that also range in various colors. This is one of the best ways to appeal to kids by making these devices cool and customizable to each individual. The use of these devices has struck a trend with teens who are now calling it “vaping”. The FDA classifies e-cigarettes and other vaping devices as tobacco products because their original purpose was to serve as a tool to be used by adult smokers to help them stop smoking traditional cigarettes and eventually quit smoking overall but, it seems as if the main consumers of these devices come from a much younger age group than anticipated.

In a TED Talk titled, “What You Should know about Vaping and e-Cigarettes”, biobehavioral scientist Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin informs her audience about this newfound craze among adolescents and states, “[In the United States] there was a 900% growth in the use of e-cigarettes by youth between 2012 and 2015… Recent [2019] estimates show that approximately 3.6 million high school and middle school students have used e-cigarettes in the U.S.” (Krishnan-Sarin).

As Krishnan-Sarin discussed in her TED Talk, e-cigarette products have a strong and growing appeal to adolescents.  According to a different 2019 study from Dr. Karen A. Cullen at the Center for Tobacco Products, 19,018 sixth to twelfth graders in the United States reported an estimated 27.5% of high schoolers and 18.0% of middle schoolers currently use e-cigarettes while there was a reported 5.8% for high school students and 2.3% for middle school students use of regular cigarettes (Cullen 4). This study also found that approximately 50% of e-cigarette users in both age groups are non-Hispanic white males. Ideally, these numbers should all be at 0% especially when the users are kids but, there is a clear difference in e-cigarette and cigarette use showing that adolescents favor e-cigarettes.

Specifically, the e-cigarette brand, JUUL, is mentioned in both Krishnan-Sarin’s TED Talk and Cullen’s study from the Center for Tobacco Products. According to Cullen’s study, 59.1% of high school students and 54.1% of middle school students that reported current e-cigarette use, also reported that JUUL was their usual e-cigarette brand to use. In Krishnan-Sarin’s TED Talk, she describes JUUL as one of the most popular devices used by teens and it not only looks like a USB device, but it also can be charged by being plugged into a USB outlet. Both of these attributes are things that would appeal to young users. According to a journal by Jidong Huang from the Georgia State University Division of Health Management and Policy, JUUL’s $150 million retail sales in just 2017 accounted for 40% of all e-cigarettes retail market sales which includes branded devices, branded e-liquid (used to refill pods for certain vaping devices), cartridges, and refills (Huang 3). According to Krishnan-Sarin, “This year [2019] the e-cigarette market is expected to drive $26 billion in sales worldwide. And over the next six years, that volume is expected to double” (Krishnan-Sarin). Although conventional cigarettes still make up the larger industry, the e-cigarette industry has only continued to grow exponentially the past two decades and JUUL is only the first of many companies that will continue to market to the youth and grow in sales other companies being Suorin, Puff, Vuse, Breeze, Ezzy, etc.

What makes these devices so appealing to adolescents? A study done by Dr. Shu-Hong Zhu at the University of California San Diego’s Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, compared newer brands of e-cigarettes and vapes to older brands and their marketing strategies. This study found that the older brands of e-cigarettes are more likely to produce devices that looked like cigarettes (cigalikes) and the newer e-cigarette brands produced versatile devices that look nothing like cigarettes and are more aesthetically pleasing to the user (Zhu 4). Also, older brands focus on the claim that they are healthier and cheaper than conventional cigarettes while the newer e-cigarette brands focus on their various flavors and does not compare themselves to conventional cigarettes (Zhu 4). Hence, the phrases “vaping” and “JUULing”. One reason adolescents are drawn to e-cigarettes is because of their kid-friendly flavoring that gives the false perception that they are “safe”. These flavors may also make e-cigarette devices more addictive especially when compared to the awful taste of cigarettes. Adult smokers should not need over 15,000 kid-friendly flavors to help them stop smoking. These flavors should be regulated on production and sale because kids seem to continue to get their hands on them.

Even if the e-liquids are regulated, kids will still have the perception that e-cigarettes are the safer alternative. E-cigarette producers such as JUUL, Puff, and Suorin among others call their devices, vaporizers which leads kids to believe that they are inhaling water vapor from these devices which is safe especially when compared to cigarettes. This false perception leads teens to spread the false information among their peers and it continues to go from there. According to a survey done by Dr. Maria L. Roditis in 2015, teens know that conventional cigarettes are harmful and there are little to no benefits for smoking them. However, when the same group of teens were asked about e-cigarettes, they believed that e-cigarettes were “safer” some not even knowing the devices contained nicotine and thinking they are harmless. Also, the teens could not come up with risks for e-cigarettes like they did with conventional cigarettes. This shows the lack of awareness and knowledge on e-cigarettes among teens but it should be a priority to educate everyone on these new devices because just as Krishnan-Sarin said in her TED Talk, “Our lack of vigilance in the earlier years around cigarette smoking, led to a cigarette epidemic and many, many, cigarette related diseases. We do not want to repeat the same mistakes with e-cigarettes” (Krishnan-Sarin).

Due to the limited amount of evidence against e-cigarettes, some people will still believe that e-cigarettes are the better alternative for smoking and companies that produce these devices will continue to market their products as the safer substitute. There are studies that provide evidence to support the claims that e-cigarettes produce far less toxins than tobacco cigarettes.

E-cigarettes and other vapor devices are also more appealing to the public because there is very little research to show the long-term effects of the devices. So, when it comes to marketing against the devices, it is not as easy as ads against big tobacco companies that can show people suffering the long-term effects of conventional cigarette use. The modernity of these devices is what causes the lack of knowledge but there are still recent studies that show possible health risks from e-cigarette use.

Bibliography

Cullen, Karen A. “e-Cigarette Use Among Youth in the United States, 2019.” JAMA, JAMA Network, 3 Dec. 2019, jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2755265.

Huang, Jidong, et al. “Vaping versus JUULing: How the Extraordinary Growth and Marketing of JUUL Transformed the US Retail e-Cigarette Market.” Tobacco Control, vol. 28, no. 2, 2018, pp. 146–151., doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054382.

Khan, Samir. Vaping: What You Should Know | Samir Khan | TEDxAshburyCollege. Vaping: What You Should Know, TEDx Talks, 27 Jan. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNYEbnt_g38.

Krishnan-Sarin, Suchitra. What You Should Know about Vaping and e-Cigarettes. What You Should Know about Vaping and e-Cigarettes | Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, TED, 5 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=a63t8r70QN0.

Roditis, Maria L., and Bonnie Halpern-Felsher. “Adolescents’ Perceptions of Risks and Benefits of Conventional Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes, and Marijuana: A Qualitative Analysis.” Journal of Adolescent Health, Elsevier, 23 June 2015, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X15001573.

smokefree.gov. “What We Know About Electronic Cigarettes.” Smokefree Gov, smokefree.gov/quit-smoking/ecigs-menthol-dip/ecigs.

Zhu, Shu-Hong. “Market for e-Cigarettes Includes 466 Brands and 7764 Unique Flavours.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 348, 16 June 2014. JSTOR, doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2014-051670.