I like to think I’m a savvy parent, but I got a reality check recently when I walked up to some friends as they were discussing their teens.

 “Tons of kids in her grade do it,” one friend said of her 15-year-old daughter. “Fortnite?” I asked, as they looked at me sideways. “No, they’re vaping,” she said, referring to the act of inhaling aerosol, or vapor, from an e-cigarette or similar device. “Half the school is vaping.”

I was shocked. The thought of children inhaling chemicals, at school no less, seemed too outrageous to be true. But when I looked into it, I discovered that kids start vaping even younger than that, and the consequences are plenty. I figured if I didn’t know about vaping, then lots of parents might not know about it either. With our kids embracing this hazardous trend, we all need to know the facts about vaping.

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