Vaping a sweeping fad; here's why parents should be concerned
Teens often don't know consequences
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — They’re doing it in school bathrooms. In locker rooms. In hallways and on school grounds. The most brazen of the students? They’re doing it right inside classrooms.
They’re vaping — inhaling vapor from electronic cigarettes that often contain highly addictive nicotine, lured by devices that are easy to hide from adults and by flavors such as mango, crème brûlée, mint and nectar.
The most recent data show that 3 million school-age children — including more than 600,000 middle school students — have tried vaping. Many are concerned that it could be a gateway to stronger substances, such as regular cigarettes or marijuana.
For many teens, it has become the latest way to look and feel cool. Go to YouTube and you’ll find plenty of videos of teens talking about vaping, about being suspended for vaping, or providing lessons on doing vaping tricks — such as making O’s with the vapor. It’s now the most commonly used tobacco product among young people.
Parents, often, are in the dark — fooled in part by devices that look like everyday items, such as flash drives and pens. Many have never even heard of vaping — or JUULing, as it’s commonly known among teens.
“It’s a pretty big problem,” said John Sobah, 16, a junior at Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township and a member of a teen council that works to educate students about the dangers of vaping and other substance abuse. “I’ve seen a lot of people vaping. … It happens at every school.”
It’s increasingly becoming a nemesis of school administrators, who are beefing up policies and treating students who get caught vaping the same as they would students who are
caught with regular cigarettes. Many are bringing in outside experts to educate students and parents, while others are creating their own prevention programs. In some districts nationwide, school officials have removed doors from bathroom stalls to deter students from vaping.
And it’s troubling experts who worry about the health effects of the products on the growing brains of teens.
There are already data showing that in addition to using the devices to vape nicotine, youth are using them to vape marijuana.
The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently declared vaping use among youths an epidemic, threatened to crack down on companies that target their products at young people and launched a campaign to curb use among youths. The U.S. Surgeon General in a 2016 report said it is a major public health concern.
Cheryl Phillips has been teaching Vaping 101 classes to students and parents at schools across the region since January. At sessions with parents, she pulls out vaping devices so adults can become familiar.
“Over and over, we heard that the first time a parent heard about (vaping) was when they got a call from school that their student was being suspended because they were found with paraphernalia,” said Phillips, who teaches the classes through her job as coordinator of the Health Exploration Station at St. Joseph Mercy Canton Health Center.
THE DATA SHOW THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM:
A 2017 study conducted ■ by University of Michigan researchers found that nearly 17 percent of high school seniors had vaped in the previous 30 days. For 10th-graders, it was 13 percent, and for eighth-graders, it was 7 percent. Both sets of numbers were up from the previous year, when a similar but not identical question was asked in the Monitoring the Future study.
In that same study, 11 percent ■ of 12th-graders said they had vaped nicotine in the past 30 days, compared with 8.2 percent for 10th-graders and 3.5 percent for eighth-graders.
The study also found that ■ 4.9 percent of 12th-graders had vaped marijuana in the previous 30 days, compared with 4.3 percent for 10th-graders and 1.6 percent of eighth-graders.
A 2015 National Youth ■ Tobacco Survey concluded that 3 million youths — 2.4 million high school students and 620,000 middle school students — used e-cigarettes.
Of those who used a tobacco ■ product, 16 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes, up from 1.5 percent in 2011, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
A 2017 study published in ■ the journal Pediatrics found that youth who use e-cigarettes are seven times more likely to move on to smoking regular cigarettes.
KIDS VAPE, BUT DON’T UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES:
In 2015, the UM survey asked students why they’re using e-cigarettes. The most popular replies among high school seniors: To experiment and see what it’s like, because it tastes good, because they’re bored and have nothing else to do, to relax or relieve tension, and to have a good time with their friends.
The students’ attitudes worry experts.
“There’s a big misconception about the dangers of it,” Phillips said. “When it first came out and became trendy, students really thought it was water vapor that they were inhaling, and there was nothing harmful about it and there was nothing wrong with it.”