Tag: teen vaping epidemic

Vaping Deaths Reach New High; Officials Still In The Dark

Two more deaths and 163 new cases of vaping-related lung illnesses were reported this week.

On Thursday, November 7, the CDC released the Latest Outbreak Information report for vaping-related illnesses and fatalities and the news was grim.

With an additional 163 new cases reported this week, there are now 2,051 cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI) in the US. California, Texas and Illinois have the highest number of reported cases while Alaska is the only state without a single reported case.

Vaping Deaths Rise Again

The CDC update also revealed that there have been 39 EVALI deaths—up from 37 deaths last week. The average age of the deceased was 53 and ranged from 17 to 75.

Officials remain unsure of the exact cause of EVALI though they speculate there may be multiple factors involved.

“The only commonality among all cases is that patients report the use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products,” the CDC noted. “No one compound or ingredient has emerged as the cause of these illnesses to date; and it may be that there is more than one cause of this outbreak. Many different substances and product sources are still under investigation.”

Statewide Bans

A number of states have taken action against vaping in 2019. In September, Massachusetts issued a temporary ban against the sale of vaping products in a bid to stave off mounting cases of EVALI. The ban is set to last for four months but due to a recent ruling by a Superior Court Judge, the state will not be able to prohibit medical marijuana users from vaping THC, according to NPR.

Vaping has also been in the spotlight due to its rise in underage users. Teen vaping has become a public health issue as e-cig companies like Juul have been hit hard by allegations that they’re marketing their flavored products to underage consumers.

The Trump administration is reportedly finalizing plans to ban the sale of flavored vape products with the exception of mint and tobacco-flavors. Mint, according to a new study by the National Institutes on Health, is a favorite flavor among underage vapers.

“These findings underscore why the Trump Administration must stand strong and implement its plan to clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 November 2019
Florida High School Bans Bathroom Breaks Over Vaping Concerns

The school’s principal says that students have been taken to the emergency room “on a weekly basis” as a result of vaping.

Students at a high school in Florida’s Palm Beach County will no longer be able to take bathroom breaks during class, allegedly due to what High Times described as “widespread e-cigarette use.”

Dr. Colleen Iannitti informed her students at Jupiter High School during its daily video announcements that use of the bathroom at school would be limited to the six minutes allowed for students to travel between class periods.

Dr. Iannitti claimed that students have been found vaping in the bathroom since the start of the school year, which prompted the ban, which was been met with a mixed response from parents.

Emergency Room Visits Because Of Vaping

In the video, Dr. Iannitti explained that the bathroom ban was due to students “going to the bathrooms so [they] can meet up with [their] friends and smoke and vape and do all those kinds of things that [they] shouldn’t be doing in the bathroom.”

Iannitti also claimed in the video that students have been taken to hospital emergency rooms “on a weekly basis” as a result of vaping.

WPTV in Palm Beach spoke to the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, which stated that they had responded to 10 calls at Jupiter High for “a variety of incidents,” and that eight people had been taken to hospitals.

There Are Bathroom Breaks For Emergencies…With An Escort

Under the new rules, students at Jupiter would only be permitted free access to school bathrooms during the six minutes allotted for them between classes. Teachers would not give students’ permission to use the bathroom during class, except in the case of an emergency, for which the student would be escorted to the bathroom by an assistant principal.

Iannitti also added that she would consider lifting the new restrictions, but only if students could abide by the rules “for the next few weeks” after which she would “see if we can get students to stop vaping in our bathroom[s].”

According to WPTV, the decision has generated some concern among parents of students at Jupiter High. “I understand the concern from the school’s point of view,” said parent Jeff Glassgold. “I just don’t know if it’s the most efficient or effective privacy matter as far as having someone follow you around when you use the restroom.”

Coverage from High Times also noted that for some students – especially those with disabilities or identify as transgender, and who may already have anxiety regarding bathroom use – the new rules may seem more restrictive and even punitive.

View the original article at thefix.com

4 November 2019
School Districts Sue Juul

“We’re tired of companies that just want to make money at children’s expense,” one superintendent told The Boston Globe.

Educators and administrators in school districts across the country are scrambling to help prevent and respond to the use of e-cigarette use among students, often on school premises. Now, three school districts are suing the largest maker of e-cigarettes, alleging that the manufacturer should pay damages for affecting young students.

Olathe Public Schools in Kansas, Three Village Central School District in New York, Francis Howell School District in Missouri and La Conner School District in Washington state are suing Juul. The lawsuits were announced Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 7-8).

Juul Accused Of Marketing To Teens

La Conner School District superintendent Whitney Meissner told The Boston Globe, “We’re tired of companies that just want to make money at children’s expense.”

The lawsuits allege that Juul intentionally and illegally marketed its e-cigarette pods to teenagers. One of the lawsuits argues that Juul is “taking a page from big tobacco’s playbook” by developing “a product and marketing strategy that sought to portray its e-cigarette products as trendsetting, stylish and used by the type of people teenagers look up to,” The New York Times reported.

Jonathan Kieffer, of the law firm Wagstaff & Cartmell in Kansas City, Missouri, is representing three of the school districts. He expects to see many other districts filing similar lawsuits.

The First Of Many Lawsuits

“The lawsuits that we filed… were the first in what we fully anticipate will be many, many more to follow in the coming weeks and months as many school districts have decided to go on the offensive to combat the epidemic of youth vaping in the nation’s schools,” said Kieffer. “America’s schools are truly on the front lines of this epidemic, which has crossed all geographic and demographic lines and is increasing at an alarming rate in all regions of the country and impacting urban, suburban and rural schools.”

Forty percent of high school seniors in New York state have used nicotine vapes, according to 2019 data. More than a quarter of high schoolers have used vapes within the past 30 days. Kieffer said that schools have had to install new technology, hire staff and spend money educating parents and students about the dangers of vaping.

Superintendent Blames Vaping’s Popularity On Marketing

The massive popularity of vapes is in part due to the marketing of companies like Juul, which controls the vast majority of the U.S. e-cigarette market, said John Allison, superintendent of Olathe Public Schools.

“As smart as our students are, they don’t understand the long-term ramifications of vaping and the amount of addictive chemicals they are dealing with,” he said. “It’s our role to protect our students today and in the future.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 October 2019
Schools, Parents See Spike In Problematic Behavior Due To Vaping

Some schools have taken doors off bathrooms to limit the likelihood of students vaping in them.

As a high school freshman, Kristin Beauparlant began noticing changes in her son, Cade. During hockey games, he began to tire more easily, often having coughing fits. But Kristin says the onset of anxiety and mood swings was what really concerned her.

Over the next three years, the Washington Post reports, the Beauparlants eventually identified the problem: Cade had become reliant on nicotine via Juul, a type of e-cigarette resembling a USB drive.

According to the Post, the rise of e-cigarettes has sparked concern for young users, as pediatricians say they are seeing teens “who behave less like tobacco users and more like patients with [substance use] disorders.”

Health Harms

In addition to behavioral changes, nicotine use can lead to nicotine toxicity, as well as respiratory issues. In fact, Beauparlant was diagnosed with restrictive lung disease due to vaping. Beauparlant’s family is one of the few to try suing e-cigarette companies. Cade’s mother hopes it will lead Juul to fund treatment programs.

“We were thinking about vapes just like we thought about cigarettes,” Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, tells the Post. “Over time we realized no, no. This is something really different.”

One potential reason for the teen behavior associated with e-cigarettes like Juul is their design which allows for greater intake of nicotine than normal cigarettes.

“With the Juuls, kids are able to get a much higher dose of nicotine—and dose matters,” Levy said. “These kids have behaviors that we often see in patients who have opioid or marijuana addiction, but we didn’t typically see with kids who developed addiction to traditional tobacco cigarettes.”

In response, Juul has claimed their products are designed for adult use and claims that studies have shown nicotine from their devices to be absorbed more slowly than nicotine from cigarettes.

According to Jonathan Winickoff, pediatrician and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital with a specialization in tobacco cessation, products proven to help adults quit tobacco may not have the same effect on teens.

“We have millions of kids now, millions of adolescents who are using mostly Juul—and in some cases other devices—who are unable to quit,” Winickoff tells the Post. “It’s something we don’t have the infrastructure to deal with.”

Schools Take Action

The use of e-cigarettes has become especially problematic in schools. Some schools have even turned to forbidding the use of USB drives since they look like Juuls. Others have taken doors off bathrooms to limit the likelihood of vaping in them.

Once Beauparlant’s son was caught vaping, the athlete was no longer allowed to play hockey. This took away any chance of playing in college as well. But after treatment from Winickoff, Kristin Beauparlant says she began to see her son return.

“We kind of lost four years of Cade to this addiction,” she told the Post. She adds that now that Cade isn’t vaping daily, “He just seems like a different kid. You can’t help but say there’s a correlation.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 August 2019
Teens Hospitalized For Vaping-Related Breathing Problems

The teens were experiencing shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea and diarrhea, among other symptoms.

Eight teenagers in Wisconsin were hospitalized in July with breathing issues that doctors believe are related to their use of e-cigarettes, or vapes.

The teens were admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, which held a press conference about the cases. The hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Michael Gutzeit, spoke about the teens.

“We suspect that these injuries were caused by vaping,” he said, according to CNN Health.

The teens were experiencing shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea and diarrhea, among other symptoms. When they underwent chest X-rays, doctors found that the teens had swollen and inflamed lungs.

“The severity of health condition has varied, with some patients needing assistance in order to breathe,” Gutzeit said. He noted that the teens are all improving, but the conditions were concerning given that vaping is so popular among young people.

Vaping Risks

Many teenagers believe that vapes are relatively harmless. However, the “e-liquids” that is being vaporized contain nicotine, chemicals and sometimes heavy metals that can be harmful. Gutzeit said it is important that teenagers and their parents understand and talk about the risks of vaping.

“It’s very important for teens and parents to understand more about vaping. Talk to each other. Understand the risks of vaping,” he said.

While teen cigarette use continues to decline, vaping is becoming more popular. Research shows that 20% of high schoolers and 5% of middle schoolers use e-cigarettes. The rate of vape use increased by more than 900% between 2011 and 2015, research has found.

Recently, the e-cigarette company Juul, which controls 70% of the U.S. market for e-cigarettes, hired a pediatrician and researcher as its executive medical officer. The company claimed that the appointment of Dr. Mark Rubinstein was a way to ensure that young people are not using vapes, but some are worried that the company has ulterior motives.

“Even if you believe in harm reduction, to go work for a tobacco company… to me goes against everything that anybody doing control should believe in,” Stanford University professor Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, who trained Rubinstein during his time at UCSF, told Kaiser Health News.

Opponents of e-cigarettes say that since their popularity has been rising so quickly, it’s imperative that the public understand the health risks of vapes, particularly for young people.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 August 2019
FDA Rolls Out Anti-Vaping PSAs Aimed At Young Viewers

The anti-vaping PSAs will run on TV networks with younger viewers such as TeenNick and ESPN, as well as on social media and music streaming sites.

A new television advertising campaign by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aims to educate young people about the potential dangers of e-cigarette use and “vaping.”

In an announcement on July 22, the FDA kicked off a new set of “The Real Cost” public service announcements, which hope to highlight the increased potential for e-cigarette users to transition to traditional cigarettes.

The new ads will run on television networks that appeal to younger audiences like TeenNick and ESPN, as well as on social media and music streaming sites.

The Real Cost ads feature popular street magician Julius Dein. In the two spots, Dein transforms a young observer’s e-cigarette into a cigarette before his eyes. The intent is to underscore statistics that show that young people who use e-cigarettes are more prone to trying conventional cigarettes.

Teen Vaping Epidemic

The FDA noted in its announcement that this likelihood of transitioning to tobacco products is particularly alarming due to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which show that in 2018, more than 3.6 million middle and high school students in the United States had used an e-cigarette product within the last 30 days. Those numbers reflect an increase of 1.5 million students from data provided in 2017, as well as increases in both the frequency of e-cigarette use and the number of flavored vape products.

Scholastic Joins The Cause

The campaign will also encompass prevention messages on posters to be distributed through the children’s publishing and education company Scholastic to all public and private high schools in the United States. The posters will deliver messages that highlight the potentially toxic contents of vaping products, which can include lead, nickel and chromium, which can pose serious health risks including increased risk of cancer.

The Real Cost TV spots are part of a larger, nearly $60 million public education campaign that was launched in September 2018 with advertising on digital and social media sites and posters in high schools across the nation that targeted about 10.7 million young people ages 12-17. As Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless, MD, noted, “The new ads, as part of our youth campaign, highlight one of the many alarming aspects of youth e-cigarette use—that, according to emerging science, teens who vape are more likely to start smoking cigarettes, putting them at risk of a lifetime of addiction to smoking and related disease.”

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Juul, one of the leading manufacturers of e-cigarette products, said, “We share these concerns about youth vaping, which is why we have taken the most aggressive actions of anyone in the industry to combat youth usage.”

These efforts have included support for legislation that would raise the legal smoking age to 21 and the closure of Juul’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the United States.

View the original article at thefix.com

30 July 2019
Juul Appoints Former Addiction Researcher As Medical Director

Critics feel the move is an attempt to control the research surrounding e-cigarettes and teen nicotine use.

The e-cigarette giant Juul Labs has appointed a former critic best known for researching the dangers of nicotine for teens brains as its new medical director, prompting skepticism from people concerned about the company’s targeting of young users.

Pediatrician Mark Rubinstein became Juul’s executive medical officer last week. Previously, Rubinstein was a lead researcher at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

He has spoken about the dangers of vaping for teens, so his alignment with a company known for being popular among teenagers was very surprising to many who know him.

“Even if you believe in harm reduction, to go work for a tobacco company… to me goes against everything that anybody doing control should believe in,” Stanford University professor Bonnie Halpern-Felsher told Kaiser Health News. Halpern-Felsher trained Rubinstein during his time at UCSF.

Teen Vaping Epidemic

The FDA has proclaimed that e-cigarette use among teens is an epidemic, with 20% of high schoolers trying the products last year.

Juul Labs claims that it hired Rubinstein as part of its effort to reduce teen use of its product. However, many experts are not convinced that Juul—which holds 70% of the American market for e-cigarettes—has the greater good in mind.

“Part of Juul’s strategy is to create credibility and buy influence by hiring everybody who would take their money. We shouldn’t be fooled: Juul created the youth e-cigarette epidemic and refuses to take responsibility for it,” said Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids spokesperson Vince Willmore.

Some people feel that Juul’s employment of Rubinstein is an attempt to control the research surrounding e-cigarettes and teen nicotine use.

Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, Stanton Glantz, said he felt “shocked and depressed” about Rubinstein joining Juul.

Critics of the appointment say that Juul is acting like Big Tobacco, which controlled the narrative and research around cigarettes for decades.

“I understand why scientists are concerned about a program like this, and I think they should be,” said George Washington University professor David Michaels, who has studied corporate influence on science and research.

John Schachter, with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said, “To us, Juul is Big Tobacco 2.0.” He pointed out that the company has sponsored legislation that it says would reduce teen nicotine use, but that opponents say would remove local government controls over restrictions on e-cigarette products.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 July 2019
Teen Injured By Exploding E-Cigarette

The e-cigarette explosion caused extensive wounds to the young man’s mouth, including a broken lower jaw and missing teeth.

A 17-year-old boy suffered severe facial injuries, including a broken jaw, when an e-cigarette exploded in his mouth.

The incident and the extent of his injuries were detailed in a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine and penned by the pediatric trauma surgeon who treated him after the explosion.

While incidents of e-cigarettes or “vapes” exploding are rare, they can cause serious injuries, and two fatalities have been reported as the result of such an explosion.

According to coverage of the report by Live Science, the explosion, which took place in March 2018, required the teenager to be sent more than 200 miles from his home in Ely, Nevada to an emergency room in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was treated by the report’s co-author Dr. Katie Russell, a pediatric trauma surgeon at the University of Utah and Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. The boy had suffered extensive wounds to his mouth, as well as several missing teeth and a broken lower jaw.

Russell and other doctors had to remove several additional teeth from the boy’s mouth because their sockets had been irreparably damaged. A dental plate was installed under his lower gums to stabilize his jawbone, and his jaw was wired shut for six weeks to allow his mouth to close properly.

Russell told Live Science that she and her colleagues published the report because they had been shocked by the extent of the damage caused by the explosion.

“When I met this patient, I had no idea that a vape pen could do this,” she said. “It takes a lot of force to break your jaw.”

According to a report issued by “Tobacco Control,” an estimated 2,035 burn and explosion injuries from e-cigarette use were reported by U.S. hospital emergency rooms between 2015 and 2017.

Since the event reported in the case study, more explosions have been reported, including an incident in January 2019 when a 24-year-old Texas resident died after a metal shard from an exploding vape entered his neck and severed an artery.

The exact reason for the explosion has yet to be determined, but as the Times reported, various sources have suggested that the lithium-ion battery used in vape products can overheat to the point of explosion.

A 2017 report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency noted that such batteries “are not a safe source of energy for such devices,” while a blog post from the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute said that vaping devices that employ an “open system” – which include a rechargeable battery with reservoirs that are filled with e-liquid – are less safe than ones with closed systems, which use pre-filled cartridges that attach to a rechargeable battery, or ones that can’t be recharged.

The Food and Drug Administration offered a list of safety suggestions for e-cigarette users, including the use of devices with safety features, keeping loose batteries away from metal objects (to prevent an accidental charge), replacing wet or damaged batteries, and keeping vape devices away from extreme heat or cold.

View the original article at thefix.com

25 June 2019