He vapes at home. He vapes in his car. He vapes at Walmart. He vapes 24/7. Senior Joshua Hewes is addicted to electronic cigarettes.

“I love [electronic cigarettes],” Hewes said. “ I think the idea is great. People just use them for the wrong reasons. It’s like a status. They use [electronic cigarettes] to make themselves look cool and look important. They don’t use it for the way they were meant to be used, a tool to help you kick the habit of smoking.”

Electronic cigarettes, better known as e-cigs, have recently swept the nation due to their rising popularity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, one in every 10 high school students has experimented with e-cigs. Originally aimed to prevent or lessen the use of tobacco smoking, e-cigs are battery-powered devices that use a heating element to vaporize a liquid solution. This liquid solution may contain a combination of nicotine and other flavorings, but they do not necessarily have to contain nicotine.

Before he started using e-cigs last May, Hewes said he would constantly smoke regular cigarettes, smoking at least two and a half to three packs of cigarettes a day. He said one of the reasons he wanted to make the transition to e-cigs was because of the high expense of regular cigarettes and the health concerns.

“When I smoked, it killed my stamina,” Hewes said. “It made me breathe real heavy and I felt lazy. I felt fat. I couldn’t do anything, but like whenever I stopped smoking and started doing e-cigs, I got my stamina back. I can eat right, I just feel a lot better. I feel like a weight has lifted off of me.”

The key difference between regular and e-cigs is that e-cigs do not contain tobacco.

However, the CDC said that nicotine is highly addictive and people can still become addicted to these battery-operated cigarettes. Sophomore Mallory, a past user of both regular and electronic cigarettes who’s last name has been omitted to protect her privacy, said the difference between the two is apparent.

“Cigarettes are nasty compared to e-cigs,” Mallory said. “I’ve tried [regular smoking], but I didn’t like it. E-cigs taste good, but they’re not strong, and they don’t burn. Cigarettes burn your throat and they’re not tasteful.”

Even though the use of nicotine in e-cigs is optional, there are still health concerns regardless of the nicotine. In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration completed an analysis regarding the harm of e-cigs and discovered that they contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals. The FDA also detected tobacco nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic to humans.

Because of these health concerns, students like sophomore Cameron Evans are opposed to the use of these alternative cigarettes.

“A lot of people think [e-cigs] are not as harmful as cigarettes, but they actually have harmful chemicals like chemicals used in anti freeze,” Evans said. “It is poisonous. People also believe that they release water vapor, which it’s actually also an assortment of chemicals.”

Evans said he was once offered to vape with someone, but he refused. He said they make him uncomfortable.

“I try not to judge, but [if people smoke], it does worsen my opinion on them a little bit, honestly,” Evans said. “It just makes me feel like they don’t care about themselves and they are dishonoring themselves and their body.”

Executive Principal Steve Payne said that e-cigs are against school policy because they can contain liquid nicotine, which is considered a drug.

“[E-cigs] are distracting,” Payne said. “Just like if someone was smoking, that’s distracting and someone who uses e-cigarettes would also be distracting. It doesn’t have a place in school. This is a place of learning, an institution of learning and e-cigarette use is not appropriate at school.”

Mallory said she does not vape too often, but does not like when people use e-cigs at school.

“Actually when I had [my e-cig], I’d like stay in my room and watch Netflix and smoke it, but it wasn’t like I take it to school,” Mallory said. “There are a lot of teenagers that take theirs to school and smoke them in the PAC and stuff like that. It’s really kind of stupid, why do you need to bring it to school? It’s just stupid.”

Because of the use of liquid nicotine, Payne said that students who use e-cigs on campus would receive the same punishments as a student who uses regular cigarettes on campus. He said that the student will initially get a detention and if the habit continues, then it is considered insubordination and further consequences will take place.

“If someone is of age and wants to use cigarettes and wants to use electronic cigarettes, then that is a personal choice if that is what they want to do,” Payne said. “It’s not that I am opposing e-cigarettes. It’s that I am upholding our rules.”

Hewes said he would recommend e-cigs to someone who is trying to stop a smoking habit because it is safer alternative than using tobacco cigarettes.

“If you’ve been smoking for 10, 15, 20 years, or so on so forth, I would recommend [e-cigs] if you want to kick it,” Hewes said. “If you want to kick the habit the smart way, get an e-cig. You can get a nicotine one if you want but, you can have it look exactly how you want, and taste the way you want, while also maintaining its job. It’s a really smart thing. I like it.”