“Breathing wasn’t harder, but it felt like something was up,” said the 22-year-old junior from Plano, Texas.
Braden Brown, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, knows the risks of using e-cigarettes and abstains during the week.
But on Friday and Saturday nights, or during a “Sunday Funday” of drinking, he’ll go through a Juul – a popular type of e-cigarette – or two, even if it makes him feel funny at hockey practice the next day.
As health officials across the country scramble to understand what exactly is causing the lung injuries related to e-cigarette and vaping use, they’re waging a multipronged battle when it comes to getting young users to quit. They’re facing indifference and feelings of invincibility – as most parents of teens can relate – but also physiological addiction in some cases.
School, health and government officials also say they’re struggling to turn young people away from vaping and e-cigarettes at the same time that marketing campaigns present the products as safer than regular cigarettes.
The medical community hasn’t had enough years to study the long-term health impacts of the products, health experts say.
“There’s a campaign of misinformation when you use the word ‘safe,’ ” said Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonologist and tobacco treatment specialist at Johns Hopkins University. “Even compared to the relative risk of using regular cigarettes, that doesn’t tell us the actual risk to you, and to someone who has never smoked a cigarette.”
Christy Sadreameli, a pediatric pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins, put it more bluntly in a webinar for the American Lung Association on Wednesday:
“These products were designed to appeal to teens and to go undetected by adults,” she said. “According to the Surgeon General, there’s no safe level of exposure to nicotine.”
Vaping-related illnesses and deaths continue to rise
At least eight people have died in the recent outbreak and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week confirmed 530 cases of vaping-related lung illness in 38 states and one U.S. territory.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is studying more than 120 vaping product samples submitted by states associated with cases of patient lung injury. The samples are being studied for the presence of chemicals such as nicotine, THC and other cannabinoids, along with cutting agents and other additives, pesticides, opioids, poisons and toxins, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said Wednesday.
What the experts say:What we know about vaping-related lung illness
The FDA plans to soon release a plan to take popular flavored e-cigarette varieties such as menthol and mint off the market. And the CDC is warning young people to refrain from vaping.
Rates of teen nicotine vaping more than doubled nationwide between 2017 and 2019, according to a report released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Current efforts by the vaping industry, government agencies, and schools have thus far proved insufficient to stop the rapid spread of nicotine vaping among adolescents,” the report said.
More than 1 in 4 12th graders and more than 1 in 5 10th graders reported vaping in 2019, according to data in the report compiled by researchers at the University of Michigan.
“New efforts are needed to protect youth from using nicotine during adolescence, when the developing brain is particularly susceptible to permanent changes from nicotine used and when almost all nicotine addiction is established,” the report said.
Punishment or treatment? School districts must decide
Officials at K-12 schools, where e-cigarette and vaping use has soared, are struggling with how to balance discipline for using tobacco products on school grounds with treatment and counseling.
Districts have started installing vaping censors in bathrooms to catch students using the products at school. Other districts have hired additional staff to better patrol bathrooms and hallways.
Some districts are designing new forms of discipline to deal with the rise in offenders — many of whom are first-time users drawn to the products because, well, everyone is doing it.
In Fort Myers, Florida, the Lee County School District saw tobacco and drug offenses on school grounds soar in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. Tobacco use or possession offenses in the 95,000-student district increased almost five-fold; drug use offenses more than doubled.
Much of that was due to kids being caught vaping at school, said district spokesman Rob Spicker.
In August, the district opened a new center where students suspended for such offenses are sent for 20 days. At the center, the students essentially complete their studies online, under the supervision of staff, for the four weeks, but they also receive mentoring and drug-treatment counseling.
Source USA Today