Electronic cigarettes should be banned in New Jersey. The vaping industry has not been completely honest with the customers. Users risk exposing their respiratory systems to potentially harmful chemicals in e-cigarettes.

The lives of young smokers are changing for the worse with the rising popularity of e-cigarettes. Most of them start smoking e-cigarettes to join the trend, but they are not entirely aware of what are they doing to their health.

Recently, N.J. Health Department says nine people in North Jersey have been hospitalized with “severe lung illness” after using a variety of vaping devices.

New Jersey has proposed vaping restrictions but there aren’t yet established bans. Meanwhile, America’s youth is rapidly getting addicted to a variety of e-cigarette devices, which also allow for covert use of illicit drugs. I feel the New Jersey Department of Health should focus on removing these threats with more effective measures. In addition, new laws should be passed to restrict both smoking and e-cigarette use.

Maria I Munoz

Egg Harbor Township

Immigrants must blend

Though I don’t support what I believe is President Donald Trump’s visceral bigotry regarding illegal and legal Mexican immigrants streaming into the U.S., I’d be remiss to turn a blind eye to the sharpening lines of differentiation between American and Mexican communities developing within the nation.

A growing number of Mexican immigrants who come to America to enjoy a better life resist even the slightest amount of Americana acculturation.

In a 1790 letter to Jewish immigrants living in Rhode Island, President George Washington wrote: “The government of the United States … requires only that those who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving on all occasions their complete and patriotic support.”

But instead of blending homogeneously into American communities, many Mexican immigrants form their own distinct communities within ours. Lacking American patriotism, these locals only serve to exacerbate the contrasts in our cultures that separate us.

Moreover, even though their growing numbers place a strain on the economy and, in many cases, deprive Americans of jobs, we still try to accommodate them by having ESL classes in schools and at various other locations. But as soon as a disagreeable topic arises, then suddenly they break into Spanglish and don’t speak English.

Granted, with each passing day Trump sounds more like the cartoonish Donald Duck. But when viewing his more rigid policies on immigration through the lenses of “America First,” they may not appear as morally repugnant as we might think.

Edsel Coates

Atlantic City