This Is The Danger Of Exposure To Electric Cigarettes To Children And Youth

Illustration - Seller organizes e-cigarettes. (Doc. ANTARA.)

JAKARTA - Electric cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are not new goods in Indonesia and are better known as vapes.

Pediatrician and child respirology consultant RSAB Harapan Kita dr. Dimas Dwi Saputro Sp.A said children or adolescents can still have a bad health risk to exposure to e-cigarette smoke or so-called second hand vaping.

"There is evidence that 2022 was examined in 2,097 children aged 17 years followed from 2014 to 2019. It turned out that the incidence of wizin or wheezing increased by about 15 percent, then Bronchitis increased by 26 percent and shortness of breath increased by 18 percent," he said in an online discussion "World Tobacco Without Day" which was followed in Jakarta, Saturday.

From this data, Dimas explained that the risk of children experiencing bronchitis will increase 1.4 times more and 1.5 times the risk of shortness of breath among young adults and adolescents who should be able to grow perfectly.

It will also hinder the ideals of the nation who wants to make Indonesia Gold by getting a demographic bonus in 2045 of 70 percent, the average productive age.

This doctor who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (UI) explained that e-cigarettes were initially used to reduce the dangers or harm reduction of conventional tobacco cigarettes which had many dangers with more than 7,000 toxic substances in them. So it is arranged in such a way to reduce the risk by creating vapes or e-cigarettes which are generally referred to as the Electronic Nicotin Delivery System or INDS.

How e-cigarettes work to produce aerosols, by warming up liquids that are usually dripped containing nicotine and other addictive substances, then mixed with chemicals so that it is easier to make aerosol gas.

Although the aerosol of e-cigarettes contains a small amount of carcinogenic substances, Dimas said that e-cigarette aerosols still contain substances that have the potential to be dangerous if used continuously.

"Because there are still nicotine, there are also heavy metals, such as lead, then organic compounds that are volatile, and of course there are substances that cause cancer, which may be less than conventional cigarettes, but if used repeatedly will be dangerous too," said Dimas, quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, May 27.

The harmful substance in the aerosol of e-cigarettes will cause disturbances in the respiratory tract system. Dimas explained that the aerosol of these e-cigarettes will form fats and will stick to the lungs that cause the longer mucus to become thicker.

The increasing swelling will form a sticky phlegm that will change the structure of the cells in the lungs so that they cannot carry out cleaning properly. Cells that change the way the lungs work will become carcinogenic which will then turn into cancer cells.

"The existence of the aerosol interferes with the cleaning of the respiratory tract, as well as the decrease in the regulation of our immune system. And what we get is that in the future, disturbances in this blood vessel will increase the risk of cardiovascular disease," said one of the Child Respirology Team of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI).

Dimas also emphasized that teenagers should not start smoking before being exposed to tobacco products, both conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Because if you start once, there will be a desire to try other things and increase the risk of even worse health.