By: Angelina Galeon

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Vaping in the bathroom is horrible and it needs to be stopped. Not only is it bad for the vaper, it’s also bad for the people trying to use the restroom.

Sadly, a universal part of the high school experience is walking into the restroom and being bombarded by vape aerosol from other students vaping. There are multiple reasons why vaping in the bathroom poses such problems.

To start, people hide in stalls while smoking or vaping causing lines. I once went to the bathroom during lunch and there were girls smoking in the stalls so a line quickly started to form.

People need to understand that there are others who actually need the restroom. What if a girl needs to put on a pad but there are people vaping in the stalls? Will she just have to wait and hope she doesn’t bleed through her pants?

Some might have bladder problems and having to wait might lead to accidents or discomfort.

Even if there are stalls open, vaping still has an effect on other people in the bathroom. When someone vapes, it lets out an aerosol that is just as bad as cigarette smoke.

When asked about the smell or the aerosol that comes out of a vape, senior at Silver Creek, Justin Torres said, “I don’t like it at all.” For example when he’s in the restroom he “ doesn’t want to smell that.”

My friend, Gabriella Dueñas-Pitts, once came out of the bathroom smelling like cigarettes and other chemicals. She claimed afterwards that she had a headache that she didn’t have before. She was only in the restroom for a couple of minutes, five at the max.

I talked to Dueñas-Pitts and she was “upset and so frustrated,” smelling like vape and smoke because, “I washed my hair the day before.” She mentioned her hair because that was where you could smell it the most.

The person who is getting the most effect from the vape, is the person who is vaping. Vaping can lead to so many problems like lung damage, anxiety and so on.

Vape contains a lot of nicotine that is clinically proven by the CDC’s article called, “Health Effects of Vaping” to leave people “feeling anxious, stressed, or depressed.” Nicotine addiction is a very hard obstacle to overcome because those feelings can intensify when quitting.

According to Yale Medicine’s article, “E-cigarette, or Vaping Product, Use Associated Lung Injury (EVALI)” EVALI, also known as ‘e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury’ is an injury that many vapers encounter. Some symptoms are coughing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. It is so common that in 2020, “the CDC had recorded over 2800 hospitalizations due to EVALI along with 68 deaths caused by the condition.”

Let’s prioritize health and stop vaping.

Sources: https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/evali#:~:text=By%20February%202020%2C%20the%20CDC,deaths%20caused%20by%20the%20condition
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/health-effects.html