The city of Oswego’s Common Council voted last week to approve a ban on vaping, among other things, as part of the “Keep Oswego Clean,” initiative proposed by Mayor Billy Barlow.

The initiative also bans the use of styrofoam by city businesses, increases the fine for littering and provides a budget for the city to add more downtown trashcans and hand out reusable bags. The initiative places a ban on all vaping in public areas within the city of Oswego. This ban does something very important, and will hopefully give people who vape the kick in the butt they need to cut the habit.

While studies continue on whether vaping nicotine or THC-laced oil is the problem, and what exactly the problem even is, people are still being hospitalized and some are dying. The link between vaping and these illnesses is clear, and even if nicotine vapes are not ultimately considered to be a problem, people who use them should still be skeptical of their long-term health effects.

Smoking of any kind can damage your lungs. Inhaling too much of anything that is not air can have no positive effects because the lungs were not meant to handle other substances. Add to that the relatively new entrance of vapes as a technology, and you have a recipe for disaster. Almost no conclusive results have been found yet, so anyone who vapes is playing a dangerous game of russian roulette with their lungs.

Not only is vaping likely bad for your health, but it is also bad for your wallet. On average, a pack of Juul pods can cost between $15 and $25 for a pack of four. Working a minimum-wage job, that is 1.8 hours of work, before accounting for taxes, for one pack of pods. There are plenty of better things to spend $20 on, do you really want to be spending that time and money on something that has no measurable benefits?

The unfortunate truth is that many people who vape today, especially in college, do so not because they smoked cigarettes, but because vaping became “cool.” Even today, with vaping being targeted on all sides, it is still very common to see someone with a Juul in their hand at a bar or a party. Emptied pods still litter the paths on campus and it is not hard to find people walking to class with a huge white cloud over their head. The unfortunate truth is that many people who vape are very likely trading in years of their life, just for a headrush, a little flavor and the appearance of looking cool.