In Surry County, the use of e-cigarettes, sometimes known as vaping, has increased among school-aged children, as it has across the nation. It was thought that raising the legal smoking age in the country from 18 to 21 would help to curtail the growing trend of vaping, but so far, no results have been seen.
This fall, as part of the county’s Prevention Month and Red Ribbon Week, the Office of Substance Abuse Recovery in Surry County launched an awareness and education programme that was given to middle school students.
The message was that youngsters their age are being actively targeted by advertisements for vaping, which is a hazardous health activity. It issued a warning that the chemicals present in vape goods could have a negative impact on developing bodies and brains.
According to a Surgeon General’s study, nicotine “may damage the developing brain and is highly addictive. Additionally, nicotine from e-cigarettes and other tobacco products can prepare developing brains for drug addiction.
The use of electronic cigarettes is frequently referred to as “vaping” because many people think they produce a vapour, according to the American Cancer Society, which defines the terminology. E-cigarettes (vapes) are not considered tobacco products even though many of them contain nicotine.
Vaping has expanded more rapidly in recent years. In accordance with the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, more than 2.5 million teenagers use vaping goods. Nearly half (46%) of high schoolers who reported using reported doing so frequently, putting a new generation at danger for a lifetime of nicotine addiction.
The tobacco industry’s actions to flood the market with affordable, kid-friendly flavours of e-cigarettes while keeping brands already well-liked by teens easily accessible on shelves across the nation are what led to the youth e-cigarette epidemic, which the advocacy group Truth Initiative wrote about in October.
Marketing to young people sometimes centres on flavours that sound pleasant or exciting in an effort to entice them to form a new habit. Young folks will find a vape that is advertised as having a bubblegum or cotton candy flavour more enticing than attempting to figure out what Camel Turkish Gold implies.
In other areas, the rate at which such a wide variety of products has invaded the market would raise red flags. 500 SKUs, or distinct bar coded goods, were reported to be available in the category of flavoured vapes by tobacco industry sales experts in June 2021. That number has increased to 1,600 by March 2022.
A countrywide ban on flavoured vapes was proposed by public health officials at a 2019 White House meeting as a first step in combating the rising epidemic of child vaping. According to Harold Wimmer, CEO of the American Lung Association, “all of the public-health and medical organisations were in agreement on the request.”
In the same year, a law was passed in the United States raising the legal minimum age for the sale of all tobacco products to 21. When outlining his proposal to outlaw the sale of the majority of flavoured vaping devices at the time, President Donald Trump agreed that there was an issue with vaping. He said, “We can’t allow people to get sick. And we can’t let our kids suffer such consequences. We’re going to have an age limit of 21, because we have to take care of our kids,” he remarked at the time.
The Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Recovery’s outreach coordinator, Charlotte Reeves, said efforts are being made to inform young people of the risks of breathing untested, unverified mysterious liquids into their still-developing lungs. Vapes include unidentified substances that could harm young bodies but are not known to them. Reeves cautioned that using a vape could serve as an easy entry point for using other drugs.
Teachers are also receiving some fresh advice. Today’s smoking is not like the kind of smoking that people who used to smoke in fifth grade remember. No one may notice that a student is vaping in the hallway between classes if there is no cloud after them or no sign of the pungent scent of recent smoke.
Truth Initiative reports that even when students are discovered, “Research demonstrates that many educators lack the necessary knowledge when students break smoke- or tobacco-free laws and use tobacco products on campus.”
They detail a road to remediation that is not punishment in their study report “Discipline Is Not the Answer: Better Approaches to On-Campus Student Tobacco Use.” Respond to students who vape with encouragement rather than punishment or suspension, which can exacerbate issues already present at school and have negative effects such as lowering graduation rates and test scores.
“Assisting young people in quitting tobacco is the best approach to prevent them from smoking it on school property. Punitive actions won’t encourage students to stop. The best way to approach students is in a helpful manner with the goal of motivating them to give up using tobacco products.
As vaping is promoted as a stress-relieving social lubricant that is healthier than a cigarette and comes in delectable flavours, it will be necessary to combat some of the marketing messaging. If only there were a cartoon camel smoking from his lips, it would be 1988 once more.
Another strategy to encourage vaping among all age groups is to point out that it can help people who are already smokers quit.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) issued a warning to those who advocate using vaping as a strategy to quit smoking in their State of Tobacco Fact Sheet: “There is no definitive evidence that using an e-cigarette or vaping helps someone quit smoking for good. E-cigarettes are not one of the seven “quit aids” that the FDA has currently approved.
The American Lung Association reported that during the past five years, cigarette smoking rates have decreased by 23% among adults and 44% among teenagers. Tobacco use has decreased across all demographics. Adult smoking rates have decreased to 28.9% since 1965.
Over 1.2 million e-cigarette products have been rejected by the FDA, while 23 have been approved.
Ref: https://www.elkintribune.com/news/41014/county-puts-vaping-in-the-crosshairs
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