What you need to know about vaping and teens

Parents need to understand the prevalence of e-cigarette use, also known as vaping, and the serious health risks they pose to young people.
Vaping comes in many forms: e-cigarettes, pen mods, box mod kits, pod mods (JUUL), which may sound foreign to some, but are everyday terms among youth.
They look like pens or flash drives or are disguised as watches or tucked into the sleeve of a hoodie, which make them hard to detect at home or school. They are sold in a wide variety of kid-friendly flavors, from gummy bear to menthol which hide the fact that e-cigarettes can deliver massive doses of nicotine, which is highly addictive.
 Nicotine in any form is unsafe for youth as their brains continue to develop into their mid 20s and can impact attention, memory, learning and impulse control. Using nicotine in adolescence may also increase the risk of future addiction to other drugs.
The most common reason middle and high school students give for trying e-cigarettes is “a friend used them,” and they’re drawn to the flavors and the lower costs of some e-cigarettes. Youth may turn to vaping to deal with stress or anxiety, but what may start out of curiosity could become an addiction and become a source of stress. Youth e-cigarette and cigarette use have been associated with mental health symptoms such as depression.
The FDA in 2020 restricted some flavored e-cigarettes, but there were loopholes that exempted thousands of flavored products that appeal to kids because of the use of synthetic nicotine. Many communities are restricting the sale of youth-appealing items, but that won’t stop youth from finding them online or elsewhere. 
We still do not know the long-term health effects of vaping. There are many unknown chemicals in e-cigarettes yet to be determined as to how they affect brain development. Some ingredients are known to harm the lungs. Some flavors are safe to eat, but not inhale. People can be poisoned by swallowing, breathing or absorbing vaping liquid through their skin or eyes.
Approximately 50 percent of calls to poison control centers for e-cigarettes are for kids five years of age or younger.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening injury as a direct result of vaping. This is where the lungs are unable to provide enough oxygen to the body. A young woman named Amanda who had vaped for seven years ended up on life-support with ARDS.
“It seems harmless until it isn’t, she said. “You never know what can happen. I thought it was no big deal when I started.”
E-cigarettes heat a liquid to produce an aerosol that users inhale into their lungs. The e-cigarette aerosol that users breathe from the device and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances. The liquid can contain nicotine, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinoid (CBD) oils, and other substances and additives.
THC is the active ingredient of marijuana that produces the “high.” Katherine Keyes, a professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, speculates the rise in youth vaping marijuana is due to the legalization and changing social norms around marijuana as well as pro-marijuana messaging.
Vitamin E acetate, an additive in some THC-containing vaping products, has been linked to severe – and sometimes fatal – lung injuries. The lack of smoke is also a problem as marijuana vaping can be concealed more easily as there is no telltale pot odor.
 “It’s not a matter of whether your child will be exposed to this, but when,” Keyes said. “The best thing parents can do is to talk to their kids about marijuana use and start early – prior to middle school.”
New products enter the market continually. We must remain vigilant to protect our youth from the mass marketing campaigns designed to pull in our youth and keep them on a path of dependence on such products.
The mission of the Substance Free Coalition of Rock County is to educate the community and break down barriers that hinder success in addressing substance misuse.