Teen vaping issue

Use among high school students nearly doubled this year, creating challenges for tobacco shops, schools

Connecticut tobacco shops and schools are grappling with the sharp rise of teen vaping.

To the shop manager at Rocky Hill’s Pure Vapor Bliss, there was something sad but unsurprising about a Monday report that high school use of electronic cigarettes nearly doubled this year.

Sophie Dobrowolski catches glimpses of the youth vaping epidemic at work in her youngest customers, 18-year-olds who are often addicted to nicotine from e-cigarette use alone.

In a federally funded, national study of teen drug use this year, one in five high school seniors reported vaping nicotine in the past 30 days, up from 11 percent in 2017.

E-cigarette use was also up nearly two-fold among 10th graders, from 8.2 percent to 16.1 percent, according to the Monitoring the Future study, released Monday. Both are the largest one-year increases in the use of any substance in the study’s 44-year history.

“I’ve even had adults try to buy vapes for their kids, underage kids,” Dobrowolski said. “They’re like, “I don’t want them smoking cigarettes. It’s better I buy them this vape, cause it’s not as bad, right?’”

She isn’t so sure. Despite limited research around the long-term effects of vaping, the devices are known to contain traces of heavy metals and carcinogens like formaldehyde. They also contain high doses of nicotine, as they were originally intended to help longtime smokers quit.

One Juul pod, the most popular brand on the market, delivers as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, plus it comes with the punch of sweet flavors like passion fruit, mango and creme brulee. Amid mounting pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, Juul announced last month it would no longer distribute its candy-like flavors to brick-and-mortar stores.

Days later, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called e-cigarette flavorings “the core of the epidemic,” and said he would like to see the the sale of most flavored product relegated to age-restricted businesses, like vape shops. That would remove all but tobacco and mint flavors from convenience stores and gas stations.

Gottlieb was responding to the agency’s 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which found 3.6 million middle and high school students had reported currently using e-cigarettes in 2018. That’s up 78 percent from 2017 among high schoolers, and 48 percent among middle schoolers.

More than two-thirds of those students were using flavored e-cigarettes. And while nearly all e-cigarettes — and all Juul pods — contain nicotine, 13.5 percent of high school seniors reported they had vaped “just flavoring,” in the past month, up from 9.7

percent in 2017 — a sign that many teens were unknowingly inhaling nicotine.

“These data shock my conscience,” Gottlieb said.

Monday’s release also found about 1.3 million additional adolescents vaped in 2018, as compared to last year, though high schools across Connecticut say they noticed the surge in 2017.

Fran Thompson, principal of Jonathan Law High School in Milford, said it was about a year and a half ago that teachers noticed many of their students were disappearing to the bathroom for 20 minutes at at time, or failing to show up for class at all. At the time time, there was a spike in damage, like broken sinks and toilet dispensers. The school realized students were congregating in the bathrooms — sitting on sinks and squeezing into stalls — to vape.

After a spate of complaints from administrators, parents and students, Thompson closed several bathrooms and consolidated study halls so other teachers could monitor the remaining restrooms.

Hall High School in West Hartford did the same, closing four bathrooms f rom January through the end of the semester in response to student vaping, Principal Dan Zittoun said.

Both schools have transitioned to a more proactive, educational approach.

“We have seen some decreases in use,” Zittoun said. “I don’t think it’s an issue that’s gone away completely, but it’s still something we’re monitoring.”

“It’s always concerning when you see students make decisions that have a potential to have short- and long-term health risks,” he added. “Our job from a school standpoint is make sure we educate our students to make good, healthy decisions.”

In Milford, Thompson has invited local hospitals to talk with students and staff, held parent meetings and kept the conversation going. Earlier this year, several Law High students even participated in a documentary about teen vaping, he said.

He hopes the film will raise awareness that e-cigarettes carry risks, and at- tract students across cliques and groups.

“I have athletes, class officers, community service members, musical theater, band. I’ve got the whole gamut of kids who are engaging in [vaping] and we’re finding kids are becoming hooked,” Thompson said. “Most of these kids never touched a cigarette at all.

Monitoring the Future did find a drop in most substance use among high school students, including tobacco.

Only 3.6 percent of 12th graders said they smoked tobacco daily, compared to 22.4 percent two decades ago. But research suggests youth who vape may be at risk for transitioning to regular cigarettes, says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“It would be tragic to undo those historic declines in cigarette use because a new generation rediscovered cigarettes after being hooked on popular vaping devices,” she said Monday.

In October, Hartford became the first municipality in the state to ban the sale of tobacco products to people younger than 21. And while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Connecticut spend $32 million on tobacco prevention, the state has budgeted nothing the past three years toward youth smoking prevention or programs that help smokers quit, according to the national nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Connecticut, Tennessee and West Virginia are the only states that provide no funding for anti-smoking programs.

Given the spike in youth use, Dobrowolski, 22, says she has considered whether Pure Vapor Bliss should keep selling Juul.

Unlike teens, adult customers who are trying to quit smoking usually end up reaching for something cheaper, she says. Not teens, though. Some students have even told Dobrowolski that they could resell Juul pods at school for $10 per pod — more than twice what they’re worth.

She sends those wouldbe customers home emptyhanded.

“Kids are still on the Juul because they hear about it, they know the name, that’s what their friend has so they want one too,” she says. “That sucks.”