Don’t Vape Around Your Kids
A new study by researchers at the Mass General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) found that many parents find e-cigarettes safer than regular cigarettes. They concluded that parents who vape are much more likely to use vapers in their homes and cars in front of their children than parents who smoke traditional cigarettes.
But vaping with children is not safe.
“Finding that the vast majority of parents who use e-cigarettes allow smoking in their homes and cars is an alarming trend,” says Jeremy Dremer, lead report writer for this newscast of the study . “We are concerned that parents have been misled by the marketing of vape products and now believe that the aerosol produced by these products is harmless to children. Pediatric health professionals must help establish the truth and educate parents that vaping is not safe for children. ”
What’s good for a baby’s developing lungs is clean, healthy air. And what comes out of an e-cigarette is not clean, healthy air, according to the American Lung Association :
What comes out of an electronic cigarette (aerosol) may look different than secondhand smoke from cigarettes, but it is far from harmless. The surgeon general warns that e-cigarette emissions may contain harmful chemicals, including nicotine and volatile organic compounds . Children are especially vulnerable because their lungs develop, and nicotine is always harmful to the development of the brains of adolescents.
Jonathan Winikoff, senior author of the study and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, says in a press release that the results are “frightening”:
“This is where we were 25 years ago when children were exposed to burnt tobacco. Major tobacco companies sell e-cigarettes as healthy products, with little regard for or warning about the harm to babies and children. In fact, all vape products create an invisible plume of nicotine and ultrafine toxic particles that spreads in the air and covers surfaces. Do Americans really want to wait another 25 years to see how this corporate experiment ends? “
So if you need vaping, it will be better for your kids if you go outside.