(pumping hip hop music)

(coughing)

Hey guys, I'm Brent Rose, writer and magic dragon.

So if you're a human living on the surface of the earth,

by now you know that e-cigs and vapes are everywhere.

But perhaps you didn't know it's billowed

into a $2 billion a year industry.

That is a lot of money to be spent

on what is literally vaporware.

But all is not rosy for these tokers.

The FAA recently banned vapes on a plane,

Starring Samuel L. Jackson,

citing the fact that they can contain harmful chemicals.

The more times you heat it over and over again,

that contributes to some of the carcinogens

or formaldehydes that we see in e-cigarette aerosols,

according to some recent research.

Couple that with tales of exploding batteries,

child poisonings and all kinds of other bad stuff,

and you've got to wonder what the hell is going on here.

How much of this would a kid

have to drink in order to be harmful?

One sip can potentially kill

a child within 20 minutes or so.

Well today, we're diving into the world

of vaping to see if we can find out.

Alright, so at The Vape Shop in LA, this is Wren.

Wren, take me through some of the basic equipment here.

So let's start with the starter kit,

the vapor production you get from this is not too bad.

Mid-tier it's either one of these bad boys over here.

This pushes more power than that device,

so you have an option of putting a removable atomizer.

This is the Ruby Mod.

This is one of the most high end ones out there.

These ones are more for the real enthusiasts.

It's more for flavor chasers.

They just want the purest possible flavor.

You wanna make sure it's evenly glowing

on both sides so you get that even vapor production.

So you're like burning off the excess residue?

Yeah, the residue that has been on the coil.

Now we're gonna get this primed and ready.

What goes into the hardware?

The liquids that we have over here.

We have fruity, desserty, we have adult flavors too.

What are the adult flavors?

Tobacco flavors, whiskey,

You don't have anything like grandpa's fingers?

No.

Keepin' it classy.

The flavor that you have here, is a Fruit Loop flavor too.

Fruit Loops?

Yeah.

That is a fruity O-shaped breakfast cereal

if ever I smoked one.

So I know a lot of vape shops have their own competitions,

what are you guys looking for in a cloud competition.

It depends on the judges, but mostly just intensity.

So you wanna teach me how to blow a really big cloud?

Sure.

(thumping hip hop music)

My first shot at cloud chasing

(coughs)

I think Wren solidly won that one.

So, shall we move on to some tricks?

This is Rich, he's a vaping trickster.

We're gonna start off with the ghost.

Damn!

I specialize in paranormal activity.

What's next?

Double O's.

Hey, there's two.

Eh, a little weak.

You got the concept though, which is good.

Okay, what's next?

We're gonna do the tornado.

Go with your hand, just go up in motion.

Damn!

You went with the, then the ooh, then the (inhales)

(upbeat music)

So, after vaping all morning,

I wanna know what it's doing to my lungs.

So I'm heading to USC's health, emotion

and addiction laboratory to talk

to some of the top researchers in the field.

A lot of people say Hey, this is vaping,

it's not smoking, right?

What is the difference between vapor and smoke?

You take any kind of mixture of chemicals

and you heat it up to a temperature,

there's gonna be some chemical reactions that are occurring,

and some of those chemicals are going to be hazardous.

And there is a governmental agency I believe,

that regulates food flavorings and stuff like that.

You can take chemical that's safe to ingest,

and swallow, it may not be safe to inhale.

I think one of the issues that's been raised,

it's the substance that's been used

to create a buttery consistency.

So if you get microwave popcorn,

it's caused by this chemical diacetyl.

That's safe to eat and swallow,

but inhaling it's a different story.

Workers in these plants that were creating

these bags of popcorn that have

the diacetyl buttery flavoring,

were developing this rare lung disease.

Companies are putting diacetyl in their e-chews

because you need something to create that viscosity.

So we've got this popcorny flavor

that we know when inhaled causes us major lung problem

and yet these companies are putting it

directly into juice that is meant to be inhaled.

Right.

But, we don't know whether if you vape it,

it has the same effects.

It could have very little effects,

or it could have equally severe effects.

So we're trying to study that right now.

That kind of raises a point.

This is all so new, that we don't know

anything about the long-term health effects.

Is that about right?

Exactly right.

So, I'd like to talk a little bit

about what's in these various liquids.

We know that nicotine is very toxic if ingested.

We've got these little bottles here,

they've got fruity pictures on them.

How much of this would it take to kill a kid?

It might only be one or two milliliters.

Now, a sip of your coffee, that you take,

or even a child's sip is about five milliliters.

So, it would just take a sip to kill a kid,

and yet we don't really have child-proofing on these.

Why is that?

That is one of the frustrating things about these products

because you can buy a lot of things,

Tylenol, aspirin, Drain-O,

and those all require packaging

that is child resistant.

Right, and when we're getting into these bigger

custom rigs, what's the problem there?

They're lithium ion batteries,

and what's happening is people are maybe

overcharging them, using improper chargers,

in addition, they're carrying extra ones in their pocket,

and if your phones's in there, if your key's in there,

anything that has metal on metal contact can start a fire.

So we've seen burns to legs, the groin region.

But also, these have exploded, for lack of a better word,

when people have been having it close to their face.

And we've seen bad burns to the face

and to the neck region and the upper chest

from these batteries exploding.

So what did we learn here today?

Listen, I used to smoke, and years later,

after all the chemical dependencies had faded away,

I still miss just playing with the smoke.

So yeah, vaping today was really fun for me,

but at the same time, my lungs feel absolutely trashed.

They say it takes getting used to,

but I'm positive my body does not

want me to get used to that.

So it's possible that it could be

a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes,

but here's the scariest thing,

vaping is so new that we know nothing

about the long-term health effects.

Maybe it'll prove to be harmless, or maybe we'll see

a sudden spike in lung cancer 20 years from now.

We just don't know.

But if we learned one thing that's beyond question,

it's that you absolutely have

to keep this stuff out of kids' reach.

Because even a small sip could kill one

in 20 minutes flat.

If you're making the choice to try vaping,

you have to know what the potential consequences could be.

Personally, I say hold off until we know more.

But what do you think?

Are you gonna give vaping a shot?

Let us know in the comments below,

subscribe to Wired if you haven't already,

and with all that being said,

there's really only one thing left to do.

(dance music)

(coughing)