FDA aims for e-cigs education

‘Wonderful that they’re taking action,’ program director says

With more than 2 million middle and high school students using e-cigarettes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is launching a program to educate children on the potential dangers of these devices.

The FDA announced Tuesday that it would pursue a new public health education campaign aimed at discouraging the use of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems by kids. These efforts are part of the agency’s new comprehensive plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation.

It’s a decision that was welcomed by many in the health field, including Pam Mautte, director of the Alliance for Prevention and Wellness at BHCare. The Alliance provides substance abuse prevention and education throughout New Haven County.

“I think it’s wonderful that they’re taking action to do some-

thing about e-cigarettes,” Mautte said.

E-cigarettes are batteryoperated devices designed to deliver nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals in vapor rather than smoke, as a traditional cigarette does.

Though they are often promoted as safer alternatives to regular cigarettes, little is known about their potential health risks and some products have been found to contain carcinogens and other toxins.

So it’s disconcerting to many health advocates that e-cigarettes seem so appealing to children.

Mautte said the alliance did a 2016 survey of 2,500 students in the five Lower Naugatuck Valley towns showing that 22.5 percent of 11th-graders polled had ever used e-cigarettes, as had 13.1 percent of ninthgraders and 2.7 percent of seventh-graders.

“A lot of it is the marketing,” Mautte said of the draw e-cigarettes hold for young people. “They’re marketed in different flavors that are attractive to them.”

The devices are an issue elsewhere in the state as well. The Connecticut Department of Public Health reported that in 2015 — the most recent year for which numbers were available — e-cigarettes were the most prevalent form of “tobacco product” used among middle and high school students.

In fall, the FDA plans to release new digital materials — including online videos — targeted to youth and focused on e-cigarettes and other electronic products. The campaign will address, among other things, how nicotine can rewire a teen’s brain and create cravings that can lead to addiction. The agency also is undertaking an effort to shape a full-scale campaign exclusively focused on youth use of electronic nicotine delivery systems.

Others cheering the new campaign included Marianne Mitchell, a nurse practitioner at Danbury Hospital, who runs the hospital’s Quit Now smoking cessation program. Mitchell said e-cigarettes — with their sleek design and multiple flavorings — remind her of the old candy cigarettes, in that they’re a way to indoctrinate kids into some version of smoking.

“Obviously, something has to be done to stop that,” Mitchell said.

LUIS SINCO / TNS With more than 2 million middle and high school students using e-cigarettes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is launching a program to educate children on the potential dangers of these devices.