The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
American Lung Association aims to curb youth vaping
Most people will say the biggest threat facing their lungs right now is the contagious illness COVID-19, which attacks the respiratory system, along with other areas of the body.
But the pandemic hasn’t meant that other threats to the lungs have disappeared, said Ruth Canovi, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Connecticut.
That includes the dangers associated with vaping — inhaling a vapor created by an electronic cigarette or another device. The cartridges in vaping devices can contain a variety of substances, including nicotine. In Connecticut, 27 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s a cause for concern, Canovi said, as vaping has been shown to harm developing lungs and overall health. There’s also been some evidence that vaping can increase young people’s risk of contracting COVID-19.
“Our lungs are important and these (vaping) products aren’t going away,” Canovi said.
To help educate teens and their parents about vaping and curb the use of vaping and related products, the Lung Association has launched “Get Your Head out of the Cloud,” a public awareness campaign that aims to arm parents with facts about vaping and its potential health risks.
The association is spearheading other anti-vape efforts, including a “VapeFree Schools Initiative,” which helps school administrators and teachers speak to students about vaping. The program would also help in developing smoking and vaping cessation programs, as well as alternatives to suspension for students who violate tobacco policies.
Canovi said the education piece is particularly important, given that this will be an unusual school year for many students.
“Even at a time when school doesn’t look the same, there are going to be opportunities to interact with peers that they haven’t seen in a long time,” she said.
That could lead to increased pressure to try tobacco products, including vaping, Canovi said.
In addition to its awareness and education campaigns, the American Lung Association has made a $2 million research investment to understand the effects of vaping on developing lungs.
The association also is partnering with Northwestern Medicine in a $25 million National Institutes of Health fund grant to study the lung health of millennials, including the long-term impact of vaping.
The multi-pronged approach to fighting vaping is a “good start,” said Dr. Faiz Bhora, system chief of thoracic surgery and thoracic oncology at Nuvance Health, the hospital system that includes Danbury, New Milford, Norwalk and Sharon hospitals.
“I think it’s high time this be addressed in a systematic fashion,” Bhora said. “I think we need good data, good compelling data, to determine what the damage is.”
There has been some compelling research into vaping already, including its intersection with COVID-19. In August, the Stamford University School of Medicine released a study of 4,351 people age 13 to 24 that showed a possible increased risk of COVID-19 for those who vaped.
Researchers found that, among young people who were tested for the virus that causes COVID-19, those who vaped were five to seven times more likely to be infected than those who did not use e-cigarettes.
But vaping was a risk to young people even before the pandemic, said Dr. Philip Simkovitz, a pulmonologist at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.
“There is not yet enough experience with vaping to know long-term risks,” he said. “However in the short term, vaping does increase the risk of respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough and respiratory infections in people who vape.”