Small, sleek, easy to disguise or hide, these vaping devices were confiscated from kids at school. There are a lot of different types of e-cigarette devices people use for vaping, and these were just a few on display at the ACA. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
The theory goes that vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes, so if you have to smoke, switching to vaping is a positive thing. Right?
But not so fast, said Amanda Casady, Tobacco Control Program manager for the American Lung Association in Duluth, who was one of the presenters at the Tuesday, Sept. 17 community panel held about youth vaping.
Increasing evidence suggests that theory just might be wrong, said Casady, with 32 recently confirmed cases of Minnesotans suffering from vaping-associated lung injuries. Nationally there are more than 450 cases of injuries caused by vaping, and so far six deaths have been linked directly to people who were using vaping products, she said.
And those numbers don’t include the numerous people who have been gravely wounded by their vape pens exploding in their face, or in their hands or backpacks.
Casady was one of a group of panelists that included professionals from Public Health and Human Services, ISD 166, Cook County Law Enforcement, and the Chamber of Commerce. This event took place in the Arrowhead Center for the Arts from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Do kids at I.S.D. 166 vape?
In a recent Minnesota Student Survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health, 36 percent of CCHS seniors said they had tried e-cigarettes, while in 2016 the same study showed that one in five CCHS students had used e-cigarettes.
But I.S.D. 166 assistant principal Mitch Dorr, who was one of six panelists, was skeptical of the latest poll. “I’m a pretty straight shooter. I think those statistics are low and the use is much higher. It’s more prevalent than people think. I think it’s more like 50 percent.
“I know of 18-year-olds who will go downtown and buy five JUULs and bring them back to school for their underage classmates,” said Mitch.
What about JUUL?
JUUL is the biggest player in the game. JUUL has approximately 70 percent of the U.S. market share, with 2018 revenues of more than $2 billion.
At the end of 2018 JUUL sold 35 percent of its shares of their business for $12.8 billion to the Altria Group, which was formerly known as the Phillip Morris Companies.
JUUL pods are small disposable vape cartridges that only fit in JUUL devices. They consist of a coil, wick, and e-liquid containing either nicotine salt or CBD e-juice.
Top selling e-juice flavors are peppermint, traditional tobacco, coffee, traditional menthol, lava flow, candy crush, blue razz lemonade nicotine salt, and lemon tar e-juice. Mango and mint flavored e-juices are also popular JUUL brands.
However, JUUL recently announced it was in favor of banning its products to be sold to people under the age of 21. On its website it states, “You are required to complete an age verification process prior to purchasing on JUUL.com”
Casady described marketing techniques aimed at getting kids to use vaping products, such as the packaging with pictures of pancakes with maple syrup or a frosting-covered cupcake and the tag line, “curb cravings” “lose weight,” or “inhale flavor.”
“Their marketing is going after kids. And they are marketing to teenage girls who are dealing with body images,” she said.
In describing e-cigarettes, said Casady, “An e-cigarette is the generalized name for any battery-powered smoking device that uses liquid nicotine and other products. One of the more popular forms of e-cigarettes among young people is the JUUL, the brand name of a device that came on the market about three years ago and looks like a long, thin flash drive a student would plug into the computer.”
A common misconception among young people using e-cigarettes is that they create water vapor, but that’s not true, Casady said. There is no water in e-cigarettes. In fact, she pointed out that the primary liquid is propylene glycol and other liquids combined with nicotine. There are also other chemicals and cancer-causing heavy metals in the liquid that when heated can damage lungs.
When young people justify vaping by saying “it’s safer,” Casady said she encourages them to explore what “safer” means.
“We’re saying cigarettes are the standard so of course they’re safer or healthier than a cigarette because most things are,” she said. “But when we compare e-cigarettes to fresh clean air, which is what should be in our lungs, then they’re not safer.”
How long does it take kids to get addicted?
Not only are the products sleek and eye-catching; there is now a new line of clothing called Vaprwear. It’s a vaping device that looks like a hoodie string. One end of the string holds the juice and the other holds a mouthpiece. When kids are sucking on their hoodie string, they might be vaping, noted Casady.
“When kids are using e-cigarettes, they are getting addicted in about a week or two. By the time they are addicted they are using at least a pod a day, though we’ve heard of some kids using as many as four pods a day,” Casady said. “So we’ve got an entire generation of kids that would never be a-pack-a-day smokers who are now upward of eight-pack-a-day nicotine smokers.”
Dorr said that when he goes to conferences to discuss school matters, “Vaping is the biggest topic discussed.”
Mitch added, “With the recent change to block scheduling, classes are now 88 minutes long. That’s too long for some kids who are addicted to e-cigarettes. They try to get out of the classroom and when they can’t get permission, sometimes they just get up and leave. That’s how strong their addiction is.”
Casady said there are e-hookahs, which are flavored tobacco products. There are also e-cigars, and modular devices. “Kids like to have contests to see who can make the biggest cloud or rings with these,” she said.
And there are also cigarette look-alikes designed to be something to get adults to smoke.
What can be done to curtail vaping in the schools?
There is a move under way to tamp down on the sales of e-cigarettes and vaping products to people under 21.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced last week that her state—with bipartisan support—declared a public emergency and banned the sale of vaping products. Michigan also outlaws e-cigarette companies from misleading the marketing of vaping products.
There is a strong move in Cook County to join the 29 other Minnesota counties and cities that have banned the sale of commercial tobacco and vaping products to people under the age of 21. That measure is called Tobacco 21, or T-21, and is being strongly looked at by the Cook County Board of Commissioners with the hopes that the city of Grand Marais will also adopt T-21.
Where T-21 has been enacted, vaping has gone down by 25 percent in the area schools, said Casady.
Spurred on by legislators and worried parents, the Trump administration announced this week that it would ban flavored e-cigarettes.
The health crisis
Some would argue the recent deaths from vaping could be linked to the sale and purchase of counterfeit cartridges containing tetrahydricannabinol (THC), and vitamin E oil. Vitamin E oil is used illegally as a thickening agent by some unscrupulous counterfeit vendors. Vitamin E oil is a lipid and when it is heated and inhaled, it is highly toxic to the user. But when kids are buying these products over the Internet, which Casady said is a common occurrence, how will they know if the products they are purchasing aren’t deadly?
Ben Hallberg, Cook County Law Enforcement Jail Administrator, who was also a panelist, said that 80 to 85 percent of the people jailed in the county have one form of addiction or another, and often it’s smoking.
“We need to also have a counseling component to help kids overcome their addiction,” said James Zimmer, Cook County Public Health and Human Services Adult Mental Health case manager who was also a panelist.
Early intervention is also another key in slowing this epidemic, commented Casady.
But as assistant principal Mitch Dorr said, “I’m a conservative Libertarian, but when it comes to enacting T-21, I’m one hundred percent for it.”
A recording of the September 17th Community Panel on Youth Vaping is available to the public via the Cook County Schools ISD 166 YouTube channel.
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