You or your teenage kids may be into heavy metal such as Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Iron Maiden, but no one should be into inhaling heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic, for example).

Unfortunately, a study published in the journal Central Science found that those toxins are in the mist of many vapes. In fact, the researchers said that they found, "such high levels of heavy metals that one researcher thought their machine had malfunctioned."

That just adds new risks to previous findings that vaping can release carcinogens such as formaldehyde and lead that you breathe in — and that it leads to chronic inflammation of your lungs and airways.

Nicotine in vapes is also addictive (of course) and that can damage the developing brain of younger people, such as guys under age 25.

In a 2024 survey, nearly 8% of high school students reported vaping in the last month. While that is happily lower than the 27% who said they'd vaped in 2019, it's still too many.

Plus, about 20% to 24% of people ages 19 to 26 reported they'd vaped in the past month.

It's really important to let your kids know how much damage they're doing to their future health by vaping. And if you're a vaper, Mom or Dad, do yourself and your kids a favor by quitting.

For help overcoming a nicotine addiction or a nonaddicted vaping habit (it happens), reach out to smokefree.gov and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Quitting and Vaping" page at cdc.gov.