Increasing in popularity among minors, electronic cigarettes are no longer used as the miracle fix for recovering nicotine addicts. Even in the classroom, students are currently enjoying the smokeless, scented high from the e-cig and are smoking more than just nicotine.

Students should be aware of the risks of smoking, even with the “harmless” e-cig. Furthermore, the classroom is intended for learning, not smoking.

Electronic cigarettes were created to help stop nicotine addictions, not start a habit of smoking. Despite their success in helping addicts quit smoking, abusing e-cigs could be detrimental to your health or potentially become a gateway to smoking other drugs. If you don’t have a nicotine addiction to wean yourself off of, you are creating a nicotine addiction by using e-cigs.

Students caught with e-cigs receive the same punishment as if caught with real cigarettes. Having an e-cig on your person is considered the “possession of a prohibited item” and the penalty is a day of in school suspension (ISS).  The e-cig is confiscated and not returned to the student. The punishment of missing a full day of class is not worth the minimal high from smoking an e-cig.

Students who smoke e-cigs on school grounds not only hinder their own education, but distract others from learning as well. Not only are they letting out a puff of distractingly good-smelling vapor, e-cig smokers could also be introducing potentially dangerous chemicals around them. Students who personally do not smoke should not have to suffer alongside those who chose to smoke.

Even though e-cigs do not have the carcinogens found in standard cigarettes, e-cig users are still creating a nicotine addiction if a nicotine addiction is not currently present. By adding other substances to the e-cig, students may be inhaling harmful substances that could damage respiratory pathways or inhibit bodily functions. E-cigs may appear the healthy alternative to smoking, but currently limited data exists to support the advertising claims.

Students should avoid smoking electronic cigarettes, especially on the campus, and advise other students to refrain from smoking them as well.  A lifetime of health is more important than a quick high from the latest fad.

Electronic cigarettes not only pose health threats, but can distract from education and have no place in the classroom.