Vaping is an unrestrained and dangerous fashion for children

"This is a very big problem," said John Sobah, a 16-year-old junior at Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township and a member of a teens council that educates students about the dangers of vaping and addiction. "I've seen a lot of people smoking … it's happening in all schools."

It is becoming more and more an enemy of school administrators, who reinforce their policies and treat students who get caught with cigarettes, as well as students caught with ordinary cigarettes. Many use outside experts to educate students and parents, while others create their own prevention programs. In some districts of the country, school authorities removed toilet doors to discourage students from vaping.

And it is the experts who are worried about the effects of the products on the health of teenagers.

There is already data showing that in addition to using the devices to evacuate nicotine, young people are using them to evacuate marijuana.

The head of the US Food and Drug Administration recently said that the use of vaping among young people was an epidemic, threatened to crack down on companies that target their products to young people and launched a campaign to reduce it l & # 39; use. The Surgeon General of the United States, in a 2016 report, said it was a major public health problem.

Cheryl Phillips has been teaching Vaping 101 courses to students and parents in local schools since January. During sessions with parents, she takes out vaping devices so that adults can become familiar with them.

"Again and again, we heard that the first time a parent heard about vaping was when they received a call from the school saying that their student was suspended because they had been found with children. accessories, "explained Phillips. as coordinator of St. Joseph Mercy Canton Health Center's health exploration station.

The data show the scope of the problem:

• A study conducted in 2017 by researchers at the University of Michigan found that nearly 17% of high school students had dropped out of school in the last 30 days. For Grade 10 students, this percentage was 13% and 7% for Grade 8 students. Both sets of numbers were up from the previous year, when a similar but not identical question had been asked in the Monitoring the Future study.
• In the same study, 11% of Grade 12 students reported using nicotine sprays in the last 30 days compared to 8.2% for Grade 10 students and 3.5% for Grade 8 students.
• The study also found that 4.9% of Grade 12 students had used marijuana in the previous 30 days, compared to 4.3% of Grade 10 students and 1.6% of students. eighth grade.
• A 2015 national survey on youth smoking concluded that 3 million young people – 2.4 million high school students and 620,000 college students – were using electronic cigarettes.
• According to the National Youth Smoking Survey, 16% of high school students consumed e-cigarettes, up from 1.5% in 2011.
• A 2017 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that young people who use electronic cigarettes are seven times more likely to smoke.

Kids vape, but I do not understand the consequences

In 2015, the UM survey asked students why they used electronic cigarettes. The most popular answers among high school students: experiment and see what it is, because it 's good, because they' re bored and that 's n'. have nothing else to do, relax or unwind and have a good time with their friends.

The attitudes of the students worry the experts.

"There is a great misconception about the dangers of this," said Phillips. "When he first appeared and that he became trendy, the students really thought that it was the water vapor that they were breathing and that it was there was nothing wrong with that and that there was nothing wrong with that. "

Reality? Phillips and others say that while more research is needed, "we know that many of the chemicals in the vape juice and vaping by-products are generally dangerous to the human body."

Some products contain as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, but all electronic cigarettes do not contain nicotine. Many, however, contain harmful substances, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The website of the US Surgeon General states that in addition to nicotine, electronic cigarettes may contain "ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs", "flavors such as diacetyl" heavy metals , such as nickel, tin and lead. "

Electronic cigarettes initially targeted smokers to help them quit smoking. A report published in January by the National Academy of Medicine indicates that the use of the electronic cigarette presents "less risk to a person than combustible tobacco cigarettes".

But high school and high school students have been particularly concerned that their brains are still developing and will continue to grow in their twenties.

"When you have teenage brains that are work-in-progress – using any substance, be it nicotine, marijuana or alcohol, you will have effects, "said Charlene McGunn, Executive Director of the and Families, a partnership between the community and schools in the Chippewa Valley. Sobah is a member of the Coalition's Teen Council.

"The FDA announcement has been long in coming because large companies have been targeting youth for a long time now, and the increase in youth smoking is really an epidemic," McGunn said.

In the meantime, there is concern that nicotine in many products will result in an increase in cigarette smoking among teens as well as addicted teens. This is already being felt among children who are vaping. Those who have the audacity to escape to class are not necessarily willing to take risks.

"It's also due to nicotine addiction," Phillips said. "They can not go all day without taking a shot."

FDA puts the foot on the ground

The FDA, in its crackdown, specifically targets five companies whose products – JUUL, Vuse, MarkTenXL, Blu and Logic – have become popular with young people. In letters to these companies, Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the federal agency, said the FDA "is evaluating our regulatory tools to deal with this worrying and accelerating trend."

This summer, the FDA conducted a "blitz of retailer enforcement across the country and found that many of them were violating federal laws on tobacco products – including electronic cigarettes – from minors.

"It's unacceptable, both legally and in terms of public health," Gottlieb said in one of the letters sent to manufacturers.

Michigan is the only state in the country without a book law that prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes – and other vaping devices – to minors, Phillips said. Legislation has been proposed in recent years, but it has never been enacted into law. This means that the federal law applies, but Mr. Phillips said that it has its limits because, although it prohibits the sale of electronic cigarette products to minors, it does not prevent the possession of vaping products .by minors. She said some Michigan municipalities have updated their local ordinances to include such a ban.