Teen vaping: Letters to the editor, Feb. 26, 2019

Teen anti-vaping club starts up

An increasing number of teens start vaping thinking that “safer than cigarettes” means “safe.” I first heard this from a middle school student: “It’s just flavoring, dude, this is not a cigarette.”

A common misconception is that e-cigarettes do not contain nicotine, but in reality, e-cigarettes contain the same and sometimes higher amount of nicotine, delivering the same desired feeling as traditional cigarettes. Experts say that a single Juul pod (the part of a popular e-cigarette) contains the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.

E-cigarettes are made to be appealing. The devices are in ornate encasings like flash drives and pens that make them “cool” to show off. Teens that vape talk about flavors, including fruit medley, mango, cool cucumber. The FDA recently banned flavors, but if I wanted a vaping device, it would not be a struggle.

Educating middle school and high school students is key to preventing teen vaping, and this is a goal for the anti-vaping club that I am establishing at my school. My interest is further inspired by my father Dr. Vipul Jain, and my research mentor, Dr.Jose Vempilly, both pulmonologists and faculty at UCSF-Fresno.

Time to give women their rightful due

This is an issue we have been dealing with for years and still we have yet to reach an understanding among us all. Even though there are some people who do take us women seriously, it is not everyone, and that is a problem. Women deserve to be taken seriously, just as serious as men are. There should be no difference , especially in today’s society. When it comes to business and day-to-day scenarios, women work so hard to get where they are. Females have done extraordinary protests to be heard and seen. We have to fight continuously for everything that should be a given, like it is for men.

When it comes to job searching and pay, women are at the bottom of the ladder. Constantly overlooked and losing jobs & job opportunities because of gender, which is unfair because there are times when we’re just as educated, if not more, than the men we lose jobs to. Becoming a successful businesswoman is difficult because a lot of times we’re seen as weak individuals or pushovers. Which isn’t right because we should be seen just as professional as men are.

U.S. meddling in Venezuela not right

Our country is actively and openly trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela. We are funneling money to the opposition to destabilize the country, have recognized a guy that has declared himself the president and are encouraging the military to support the coup.

If some other country did this to us, we would be screaming bloody murder. Imagine what you would think if Russia started pouring millions of dollars to the far right, they recognize some madman conspiracy theorist as our president, implemented economic sanctions against us and started twisting the arms of our generals to defect? You would be outraged, right? We don’t want another country determining our future any more than the people of Venezuela do.

If somehow you are not outraged at our country’s behavior in this attack on Venezuela, then you are probably OK with the Russians interfering in the 2016 presidential elections. You will be shocked when history shows Trump, his family and close advisers guilty of treason against this country. Many have already been indicted, some are in jail and shortly, I predict, you will soon see Trump himself in handcuffs, being taken out of the White House.