In the mid-1950s, the first study linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer was published. In the decades that followed, many other studies supported this finding and a host of other health-related effects attributed to smoking were uncovered.

Over the last few decades, cities and states have created local regulations prohibiting smoking in certain public places. In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was given regulatory authority of all tobacco products.

Chapter 20 of your textbook begins with a comparison of two sources of inhalable nicotine: traditional tobacco cigarettes and E-cigarettes. Because E-cigarettes are a relatively new technology, less is known about the long-term effects of the firsthand and secondhand inhalation of vaping products. However, in recent years they have been treated and regulated similarly to traditional cigarettes.

Your assignment for this unit is to create a paper that covers the following elements:

the anatomy and physiology of respiration (e.g., explain how breathing works);
the effects of the inhalation of smoke and E-cigarette vapor on gas exchange in the lungs;
specific diseases associated with smoking, both pulmonary and cardiovascular; and
lastly, based on what you know about E-cigarettes from the reading and your own research, defend or oppose the regulation of vaping products as traditional cigarettes.