Teens Who Vape Get Hooked On The Nicotine, Users Say, And Then Reach For Tobacco : Shots
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Julien Lavandier, a Colorado State University pupil, started smoking e-cigarettes as a highschool sophomore. He says he is now hooked on Juul and has been unable to stop.
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Julien Lavandier, a Colorado State University pupil, started smoking e-cigarettes as a highschool sophomore. He says he is now hooked on Juul and has been unable to stop.
John Daley / CPR News
The debate over the health dangers of Juul, vaping and e-cigarettes is now spilling into the general public sq.. In one of the crucial restrictive measures nationwide, San Francisco voters this week upheld by what appears to be like to be a big majority — nearly 70 percent in a preliminary tally — a ban on the sale of flavored vaping merchandise, in addition to standard menthol cigarettes.
Even earlier than that, federal businesses had launched a wave of crackdowns towards retailers that promote e-cigarettes, together with the favored Juul model, to minors. Public health advocates and officers fear these gross sales may very well be an rising catastrophe, reversing years of declines in smoking.
E-cigarettes are tiny — they seem like a pen or flash drive. When somebody vapes, there is no hearth, ash or smoky odor. Instead, the units warmth up and vaporize a liquid or strong. And vaping seems to have taken off amongst younger individuals.
“Believe it,” says 21-year-old Julien Lavandier. “It’s a habit for me, you know — all the time when I set down my schoolwork to do homework, take a rip of the Juul. When I get in my car, take a rip of the Juul.”
Lavandier, now a pupil at Colorado State University, started vaping when he was a sophomore in highschool. He says he’d go to events the place it was widespread to smoke an e-cigarette.
“At first,” he says,”it was a lot of, you know, chasing flavors, or doing smoke tricks and that was really what impressed me. I thought, you know, this is cool, this looks like something fun.”
He says college students at his highschool vaped at school with out lecturers figuring out. He estimates 1 / 4 of his classmates had been ordinary e-cigarette customers. Lavandier started vaping usually and later started smoking conventional cigarettes.
When Juul arrived available on the market, he took that up too, and located it habit-forming. He appreciated it greater than marijuana or alcohol.
“It’s impossible to let go once you started using,” Lavandier says. “I’ll tell you — after even an hour and a half or two, I am chomping at the bit to find my Juul.”
Stores aren’t alleged to promote e-cigarettes to minors, however Lavandier says he has been shopping for them for years and was by no means as soon as carded. In April, the FDA asked the firm behind Juul for paperwork to see if it is deliberately advertising and marketing to underage teenagers.
Julien Lavandier holds his Juul up for inspection. The tiny handheld gadget, usually across the dimension of a USB flashdrive, simulates the expertise of tobacco smoking.
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Julien Lavandier holds his Juul up for inspection. The tiny handheld gadget, usually across the dimension of a USB flashdrive, simulates the expertise of tobacco smoking.
John Daley / CPR News
The firm has on-line testimonials and has built an online community round their product. In one video, a lady in her 30s named Lauren says she’s consistently “encouraging people to use this and not smoke your cigarettes.”
Representatives from Juul Labs declined repeated requests for an interview. In a written assertion, the corporate stated its product affords a “true alternative to adult smokers, not anyone else, not minors.”
Other firms that make e-liquids additionally say their merchandise aren’t for minors. The firms do supply a variety of candy flavors, nevertheless, like cotton sweet, caramel, cherry, cookies and milk and crème brûlée.
“If it tastes good and a kid might get their hands on it — that’s not our goal,” says Jameson Rodgers, the VP of enterprise improvement for NEwhere Inc, a California-based maker of e-cigarette and vaping merchandise.
“Also,” Rodgers says, “I feel like some of the responsibility has to fall on some of the parents of any kid that’s deciding to walk into an adult store, whether that’s a liquor or a tobacco store.”
The head of Colorado’s health division, Dr. Larry Wolk, finds it onerous to consider business claims that it is not advertising and marketing to youngsters.
“I have to call BS on that,” he says, “because the flavors are cotton candy, Frutti Tutti and they have cartoon characters on their labels and you can mix flavors and strengths. It’s really appealing to kids, whether or not they are intentionally marketing to kids.”
Dr. Deborah Liptzin, a pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, sees e-cigarettes because the “new way to get kids addicted to nicotine.” She worries there’s been little analysis on health dangers.
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Dr. Deborah Liptzin, a pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, sees e-cigarettes because the “new way to get kids addicted to nicotine.” She worries there’s been little analysis on health dangers.
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Wolk additionally factors to analysis that means youth vaping results in conventional smoking. A January report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine makes that conclusion. “Among youth — who use e-cigarettes at increased charges than adults do — there may be substantial proof that e-cigarette use increases the risk of transitioning to smoking standard cigarettes,” the report finds.
One of the advantages of e-cigarettes, in response to the business, is that the units may help individuals stop their use of tobacco merchandise. When it involves that behavior, the recommendation from Ray Story, the founder and CEO of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association is “don’t start at all.”
“But if you’re going to smoke or do e-cigarettes, then certainly take an e-cigarette because it’s vastly less harmful,” Story says,”if you consider both of them contain nicotine, and both of them are addictive. It’s vastly less harmful than conventional tobacco.”
Dr. Deborah Liptzin, a pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, sees the proof otherwise. E-cigarettes, she says, have develop into “the new way to get kids addicted to nicotine.” There’s been scant e-cigarette analysis, she notes, together with on Juul and the elements within the e-liquids used within the units.
“They specifically use nicotine salts,” Liptzin says. “We have no research that I could find on nicotine salts that are inhaled, because it’s so new.”
Jen Bolcoa is a health training coordinator with Jefferson County Public Schools.
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Jen Bolcoa is a health training coordinator with Jefferson County Public Schools.
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Data from the 2015 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey discovered almost half of Colorado excessive schoolers reported that they’ve vaped. One in 4 stated they’d used an e-cigarette within the final month. That’s thrice the speed of conventional cigarettes, and has raised considerations amongst public health officers.
“The Juul has definitely been a game changer,” says Jen Bolcoa, a health training coordinator with Jefferson County Public Schools. The tiny pod of e-liquid in a Juul has the equivalent nicotine of approximately 20 cigarettes — a complete pack — in response to the corporate’s web site.
Most educators, mother and father and college students “don’t realize how much nicotine is in there, or that there’s even any nicotine,” she says. “That’s what the research tells us.”
Bolcoa works with college students as a part of the Breathe Easy crew, a membership at excessive colleges backed by Jefferson County’s Tobacco-Free Youth program, to coach college students, mother and father and directors concerning the bigger dangers of tobacco use and Juuls. An instructional video the crew posted on Facebook tells viewers that “Juuls and other e-products are disguised to look like pens, flash drives.”
Wheat Ridge High School seniors Gabriella Cordova, proper, and Teresa Kenison, are members of the Breathe Easy crew, which educates college students and adults of their Denver space college about tobacco and e-cigarette use.
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Wheat Ridge High School seniors Gabriella Cordova, proper, and Teresa Kenison, are members of the Breathe Easy crew, which educates college students and adults of their Denver space college about tobacco and e-cigarette use.
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But their video competes with others posted by teenagers on social media websites. On YouTube, there is a video referred to as the Juul Challenge. Two guys sit within the smoke-filled entrance seat of a automobile, competing, pulling on Juuls.
“Cheers guys. Let’s see how many hits I can do? You got five,” considered one of video performers says. “How many hits can you do? Write in the comments.”
That video had greater than 230,000 views, and 380 feedback in seven weeks. Teresa Kenison, a volunteer on the Breathe Easy crew, says social media helps drive the vaping development. She’s seen frequent use of the units in school rooms, bogs, and parking heaps. All types of scholars are utilizing e-cigarettes and Juuls, from these in AP courses to athletes.
“It’s really everywhere,” she says. “Students are getting hooked.”
She’s even observed older youngsters making runs to the comfort retailer for youthful ones.
Lavandier can attest to the ability of e-cigarettes as a gateway to tobacco use. The school pupil says he is now hooked on each cigarettes and e-cigarettes. He has tried to stop, however says he now cannot go three days with out utilizing a Juul. On a typical day, he’ll take upwards of 300 puffs.
“So my biggest concern,” he says, “is, you know, right now I’m puffing, puffing, happy, worry-free, and then in 20 years I’ll have to explain to my kids why I’ve developed popcorn lung — or some new form of lung cancer,” Lavandier says. “Because I didn’t know what the risks were of e-cigarettes. It terrifies me.”
This story is a part of NPR’s reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.
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