‘EVERYONE IS DOING IT’
Arizona educators target youth vaping as FDA cracks down on U.S. ‘epidemic’
The Food and Drug Administration has declared e-cigarette use by young people an “epidemic” and Tempe high-school student Brach Drew agrees.
“Today, when I went into the bathroom, I saw what I can only describe as a giant ball of vape,” said Drew, a 16-year-old junior at Marcos de Niza High School. “Everyone is doing it.”
Drew and fellow members of his school’s anti-vape committee recently helped create a new Tempe Union High School District campaign called “Vanish the Vape,” which emphasizes that the use of e-cigarettes results in school suspension in addition to health consequences.
“Today, when I went into the bathroom, I saw what I can only describe as a giant ball of vape. Everyone is doing it.” Brach Drew 16-year-old junior at Marcos de Niza High School
The Tempe Union High School District awareness campaign has been in the works for months, but is launching after an unprecedented Sept. 12 announcement by FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb that he is prepared to crack down on retailers and manufacturers of e-cigarette products.
The district campaign includes social-media and print advertisements about the use of e-cigarettes, which are battery-powered, smokeless devices that heat a liquid that typically contains nicotine. The device converts the liquid into a mist, which the user inhales. The exhale results in puffs of “vape” clouds that Drew and other teens on the antivape committee are finding prevalent at their school.
In December, the Arizona Department of Health Services is expected to launch an anti-vape campaign, too.
The state also plans to continuing with multiagency undercover sting efforts, which target businesses that sell e-cigarettes to minors.
“We’re assuming the worst. While cigarette use is going down, we’re assuming e-cigarette use here is going up, just as it is nationally,” said Wayne Tormala, chief of the Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease at the Arizona Department of Health Services. “We’re concerned that it will become of epidemic proportions in Arizona.”
Officials’ top concern is that, too often, youths see vaping as a safe behavior, that vape is like air, Tormala said. The state campaign will work with local kids to help spread the word, he said.
“We know that most vape products contain heavy concentrations of nicotine, which is addictive . ... The addictive aspect is very strong,” he said.
E-cigarettes are unsafe for kids, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
The agency says that not only is nicotine highly addictive and potentially harmful to adolescent brain development, but e-cigarettes can contain other harmful substances besides nicotine.
Not all kids who vape realize that ecigarettes contain nicotine, said 17year-old Tai Christensen, a Marcos de Niza senior. Christensen said that, at times, she feels like an outsider because she doesn’t use e-cigarettes.
Kids are primarily using e-cigarettes because they think it’s cool, Christensen said. But they are often under the impression that e-cigarettes are a healthy alternative to cigarettes.
Some states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota, have raised the price of e-cigarettes to reduce use; other states have introduced legislation. Still more have increased the price of liquid nicotine. Arizona has not adopted any e-cigarette pricing interventions.
Arizona was one of the first states to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in 2013. Since then, the state health department and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office have been conducting “CounterStrike” sting operations in which they send youths into stores in an attempt to purchase e-cigarettes.
When the CounterStrike operations began shortly after the law passed, about 85 of the youths were able to purchase e-cigarettes. That rate has since gone down to 38 percent, but there’s more work to do, said Erika Mansur, Tobacco Enforcement Unit attorney at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Store clerks can be fined up to $300 and businesses face fines of up to $1,000 for selling to minors younger than 18, Mansur said. But 80 percent of the citations are handled through a two-hour diversion program, she said.
Drew and other members of the Marcos de Niza anti-vape committee say the Arizona ban on selling e-cigarettes to minors younger than 18 is not much of a barrier for kids.
“You just ask older kids,” said Matt Bergevin, 17, who is a senior. “Also, certain shops around town sell to underage kids.”
In some cases, students who have reached age 18 will buy e-cigarette products in bulk and sell them at a profit to younger children, Bergevin said.
Hailey White, a 15-year-old Marcos de Niza sophomore, said that there was a point when she was tempted to try vaping because of peer pressure. But the consequences of getting caught — suspension and not being able to play volleyball — seemed too steep.
Kids are the best conduits for the message, district spokeswoman Jennifer Liewer says, which is why the Tempe district, which includes about 14,000 students, is working with student council members to talk about e-cigarettes with other kids.
One of the risks that parents aren’t always aware of is that besides nicotine, e-cigarettes are being used to inhale marijuana and other drugs, Liewer said.
Most of the kids disciplined for e-cigarette incidents in the district so far this school year are males, Liewer’s data show. Of the 107 vaping incidents that have resulted in discipline, 37 involved illegal drugs.