"It's like cell phones, which have some new change all the time," says Fernando. In 2021, with only 18 years, he saw in the market of disposable electronic cigarettes the opportunity to make a few pesos and, although the sale of these vapers is illegal in Argentina, he had no problem bringing them from abroad to resell in the country.
The boy, who asks not to give his real name, says that since then he only once lost the merchandise due to a control operation, but that it did not cause him major problems. "There are companies that deal with the import issue. You hire them and that's it," he says.
Electronic cigarettes have been banned for more than ten years in the country, but they are available on dozens of Instagram pages. There is strawberry color, caramel flavor, varied shapes and even a disposable format, which was imposed in recent years among adolescents and young people.
The disposable electronic cigarette. Photo Shutterstock
This vape or disposable electronic cigarette that is seen in clubs and recitals is offered as a "allowed" or a product for single use: when the vapeable liquid is finished, it cannot be recharged and must be thrown away.
The issue is that many of those who try it end up consuming second and third times. Or worse, according to specialists, it becomes a "gateway" for the frequent consumption of industrial cigarettes or refillable vapers.
"Smoke like you're going to be kicked out for smoking"
The phrase is from the song "Beso", with which Rosalía and Colombian Raw Alejandro announced their wedding in March. In the video clip, the Spanish artist appears puffing on a cigarette in the middle of what seems an edited of the best moments of the couple. The shots overflow with smiles and the chorus repeats "the best thing I have is the love you give me, it smells of tobacco and melon, and Sunday in the city".
Tobacco advertising is banned in much of the world, although these restrictions are applied in different ways. Nothing prevents celebrities like Leonardo di Caprio from being shown vaping at an Oscars (2016) or Belinda from posing with an electronic cigarette on her Instagram account (2019).
Belinda poses with a vaper in a casual photo. Photo: @belindapop
On paper, at least 182 countries pledged to prevent cigarette advertisements, through accession to the 2003 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
According to the United Nations agency, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in developed countries, and also the most important cause of years of life lost and/or lived with disability. In Argentina, it is estimated to cause 40,000 deaths each year.
In our country, this prohibition has been in force since a resolution of the National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT) of 2011, which was ratified that same year with the sanction of Law 26,687.
With the disposable electronic cigarette, tobacco companies target young people, Photo Shutterstock
It applies to traditional spaces such as radio and television, as well as advertisements on the Internet and public roads, but contemplates as an exception advertising within points of sale, such as kiosks, which implies an outstanding debt for organizations of doctors that fight against smoking.
A technical stop. In case anyone from Generation Z does not remember, in Argentina until the sanction of that law, in 2011, you could smoke without problems a whole bundle in the classroom, the restaurant and the collective. The ash was able to spread under the desks and ashtrays were not missing next to the salt shaker in most bars.
In dance venues, the ban on cigarettes was left to the discretion of laser pointers and municipal inspections, but over the years they also became "smoke-free" spaces. The bowling stopped being that obligatory appointment of the garments that are used at night with the washing machine the next morning.
From the "smell of pucho" to the breath of vanilla and tobacco
Fernando first saw disposable e-cigarettes on a trip to Miami in 2019: "Everyone used them there. People my age up to 70 years old, "he says and the data supports it. The FDA, the US government agency that is responsible for protecting the health of the population in relation to drugs, food and other consumer products, warned at that time that the consumption of electronic cigarettes had reached an "epidemic proportion" among adolescents.
In Argentina, this type of vapers were not seen. "I thought it had many benefits, such as that they do not need fire and can be used indoors because they are not invasive. After two months, I started selling them here. I put a WhatsApp number and by word of mouth they started buying me," he says.
Disposable vapers are available in different models.
The messages came incessantly and the most typical question: "Hello, I wanted to know what flavors you have. It's not like they ask much more, either." Disposable electronic cigarettes contain a liquid that may or may not have nicotine, comes in different flavors including tobacco and also includes other substances such as propylene glycol and / or vegetable glycerin.
Fernando says that he sells approximately 50% and 50% between cigarettes with and without nicotine. However, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, determined that 99% of electronic cigarettes sold in that country contained nicotine. Even some whose labels did not disclose that they contained nicotine and some liquids labeled "0% nicotine."
Disposable devices are smaller than rechargeable electronics. They can have different "sizes". The lowest Fernando sold was for 800 puffs, which would be equivalent to 40 cigarettes. And the largest, for 7,000 inhalations.
Fernando says that in ages there was everything and that he could identify basically two profiles: "There is the one who smokes cigarettes regularly and uses these disposables as a complement. Able they are in the car and do not want to light a common one so that they do not fill the car with smoke. Those are the ones I sell the most to."
Then, the young man continues, there are those who did not usually smoke. "For those, in general, it's kind of cool. They are in the bowling alley and it is like it attracts attention, because it makes a little colored light and long a rich smell. It goes through there," he says.
"I started having a lot of coughing"
Jaqueline (46), from Barracas, had stopped smoking cigarettes many years ago and did not want to return to the habit for health reasons and because she no longer liked the smell left by tobacco. "At one point, a friend started selling them and gave me to try, I think there is a stress issue that still makes me want to smoke socially," she tells Clarín.
A few months later. He began to notice that he had a lot of coughing and decided to quit. "If I went out there I was smoking for three hours straight. Sometimes, I used the ones with nicotine and sometimes I didn't. Now I see that they are consumed a lot in the clubs, because as they do not let you smoke inside the places, people use these that do not make smoke, but at the same time I think it is something that became fashionable. "
They may or may not have nicotine, and come in tobacco, vanilla, fruity and other flavors.
Florencia, 29, first saw him at recitals and searched for different options on Instagram. I had never smoked before. "I'm not sure if it has nicotine or not," she tells this newspaper and explains that she only wanted to know what they were like, but that she has no plans to continue.
Teenagers, the target of tobacco companies
The WHO has been pointing out the risk of tobacco use among adolescents, in its different formats. In Argentina, according to the latest National Survey of Risk Factors (2018), 7.1% of adolescents aged 13 to 15 said they used it, and 14.4%, having vaped at some time, even though it is illegal.
In the United States they have warned that its use is growing. In a single year, between 2017 and 2018, e-cigarette use rose from 11.7% to 20.8%.
A study by German researchers warned that "vaping" can cause damage to the brain, heart, blood vessels and lungs, and point especially to the danger represented by its massification among the youngest: "Vaping, which was initially intended to help smokers quit tobacco, became a fad among young people in the United States and leads to nicotine addiction , even among those who hadn't smoked before."
The coordinator of the Smoking section of the Argentine Association of Respiratory Medicine (AAMR), Cristina Borrajo, defines it in a few words: "Smoking has become a pediatric disease. The global trend points to a reduction in the ages of onset of tobacco use. Increasingly, you start smoking at 12 and 13."
Rosalía appears smoking in the music video for "Beso," which she released in March. Photo: video clip capture
It is not the first time that the tobacco industry redirects its target audience, continues Borrajo. "First, they tried to capture women and advertisements said that the cigarette served to control weight, invented the thinnest cigarette for women or used the focus of empowerment: you can also do what men do," she explains and highlights that "the first feminist waves in the world were very exploited by the tobacco industry."
She continues: "In the advertisements there were always many women. But the women came to a kind of plateau about starting to smoke and realized that the effort must be directed to young people. Much more at a time when adults are quitting smoking."
"It is known that about 8 million people die each year from a disease caused by tobacco. If you are an industry in which a large number of customers leave your product for health reasons, the focus becomes on creating new consumers. They created light or low nicotine cigarettes and then the electronic cigarette trap, which they sold as less harmful when it is not. But mostly because it makes young people start smoking believing that they smoke something safer. And what is known is that more than half a year have already switched to regular cigarettes." Explains.
"Substances harmful to health"
When the Ministry of Health banned heated tobacco products, which consist of a tobacco stick (HeatStick) and a battery-powered tobacco heating device, in late March, it recalled that both these devices and e-cigarettes "produce aerosols with nicotine and other chemicals such as acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde, which are harmful and potentially harmful to health."
For the president of the Argentine Cardiology Foundation, Ana Salvati, there are several reasons why the electronic cigarette is not a safe element for health. The first is that in many of these there is the presence of nicotine, which is highly addictive, carcinogenic and has harmful effects on the heart. That a vape has a lower percentage of nicotine than an industrial cigarette does not mean that it is harmless.
Different types of electronic cigarettes. Photo: AP Photo/Steven Senne, File
The second is that electronic cigarettes, also called vapers, "do not produce vapor but an aerosol, which in its composition has microparticles that are terribly harmful at the lung level."
Thirdly, "these devices have other aggregates, such as propylene glycol and glycerin, which when inhaled, produce irritation of the airways of the entire respiratory tract and predispose to infections," warned the cardiologist and added that "they also contain heavy metals that are associated with the appearance of some tumors."
Finally, he noted that "the ultra-fine particles that are in this aerosol that we aspirate when vaping reach the end of the lung and are producers of chronic lung damage."
Beyond that, Salvi warned, not only "has the electronic cigarette not been shown to help quit smoking, but in people who do not have smoking habits, the use of the electronic cigarette is associated with a greater probability of subsequently acquiring the habit of smoking conventional cigarettes."
The Ministry of Health has the toll-free line 0800-999-3040 for the attention of people seeking accompaniment to quit smoking. The list of smoking cessation centres in Argentina is also available on the www.argentina.gob.ar website.
ACE
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