Greenwich Health Educator warns teenagers about the dangers of electronic cigarettes

GREENWICH – It's easy to find kids who use e-cigarettes in Greenwich and elsewhere.

A national education program has begun to tackle the problem.

"It's a huge problem in Greenwich," said Diane DeMain, a nurse and educator affiliated with Greenwich Hospital.

DeMain travels regularly to Greenwich High School for her work as a health educator and she begins to struggle with "smoking in the bathroom".

"They are complaining and wondering what can be done," DeMain said.

Vaping is aimed at young people and adolescents, she said. "All these different flavors that they have.

"But he's still smoking," DeMain said.

She met kids in town who experimented with tobacco or electronic cigarettes in grades six, seven, and eight.

Electronic cigarettes are unhealthy and create habits, said the nurse. "They thought it would be a way to stop smoking, and that makes smoking more prevalent," she said.

Christopher Iannuzzi, cancer specialist and high school parent, knows that e-cigarettes are a serious problem for teenagers.

"E-cigarettes have essentially become an epidemic," said Iannuzzi, president of oncology at St. Vincent Medical Center in Bridgeport. "My own kids say that in high school kids use electronic cigarettes all the time. I do not think children are aware of the real dangers of these products. "

He therefore applauded the recent announcement of the US Food and Drug Administration's e-cigarette campaign, targeting nearly 10.7 million young people aged 12 to 17 who have used cigarettes. electronic or ready to try them. .

The campaign will feature powerful ads on popular digital and social media sites for teens, as well as posters with e-cigarette prevention messages in high schools across the country.

"E-cigarettes have become an almost ubiquitous – and dangerous – trend among young people who we believe has reached epidemic proportions," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a news release. "This disturbing reality is pushing us to take even stronger action to stem this dangerous trend, including revisiting our compliance policy that has extended compliance dates for manufacturers of certain electronic cigarettes, including flavored electronic cigarettes. "

Flavors are a component that makes electronic cigarettes attractive to kids, Gottlieb said. The FDA's new campaign aims to "get teens out of their" no cost "mentality about using the electronic cigarette," he said.

Iannuzzi said the idea behind the campaign was intriguing, and it seems like it could succeed.

"I think people have the impression that because they are not real cigarettes, they are not harmful," he said. "I think educating kids about the real risks can be very helpful."

Under the slogan "Know the true cost of vaping", the message of the campaign is that the use of electronic cigarettes exposes users to the risk of addiction and other health consequences, as does the smoking of real "cigarettes.

The idea is to let young people know that nicotine can reconnect the brain to have more nicotine.

Other messages point out that electronic cigarettes may contain dangerous chemicals such as acrolein, a chemical that can cause irreversible lung damage. formaldehyde, a carcinogenic chemical; and toxic metal particles, such as chromium, lead, and nickel, that can be inhaled into the lungs.

The ads will be shown on YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the Real Cost campaign website. Posters will also be placed in at least 10,000 high school bathrooms and additional materials for students and educators will be distributed to schools.

Gottlieb said most of the posters will be placed in high school bathrooms – a place where students are most likely to be pressured to use nicotine-based products.

The FDA has taken action in recent months to target the illegal sale of electronic cigarettes to young people, as well as the marketing and attractiveness of products for children.

Last week, the FDA issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers who illegally sold JUUL and other electronic cigarette products to minors during a national clandestine campaign of traditional stores and line this summer.

Last week, the agency also sent letters to five major electronic cigarette manufacturers, whose products JUUL, Vuse, MarkTen, blu e-cigs and Logic, were sold to children for 60 days. how they will deal with the widespread access of young people and the use of their products.

If they do not, the FDA may require these brands to withdraw some or all of their flavored products until they meet all the obligations imposed on them by law.

The "The Real Cost" electronic cigarette prevention campaign is a nearly $ 60 million effort funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry.