E-cig use among teens growing dangerously

As a former secondary teacher who also has worked at schools for high-risk youth, I can’t say I was shocked to hear that the principal of a local alternative high school had a drawer full of confiscated vape pens or e-cigs at the start of this school year.

But adults like to believe those sorts of rebellious behaviors are naturally higher at such schools. Surely teens at “regular” public schools aren’t falling for Big Tobacco’s latest efforts at hooking youngsters with candy-flavored nicotine juices and cool “cloud contests” sponsored by national vape shops.

Well, they’d be wrong.

A recently-released statewide survey of nearly 1,500 Alaska high school students revealed that nearly one out of five students reported using e-cigarettes during the past month and that one out of three teens currently uses tobacco in some form – including e-cigs.

Overall, about 18 percent of teens report current use of e-cigs.

“Increased use of electronic cigarettes by Alaska adults and youth is not an accident,” Marge Stoneking, executive director of the American Lung Association in Alaska, said after the results of the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were released last week. “The tobacco industry is repeating history by promoting e-cigarettes to kids and young adults and casting doubt about negative health effects of use and exposure to harmful particles/chemicals that are emitted from e-cigs.”

Recent Mat-Su Borough Assembly hearings on whether to include e-cigs and vape pens in a 55 percent wholesale excise tax revealed a well-organized vaping industry which argued e-cigs are helping people quit smoking. Some people who testified even claimed “vaping saved my life.”

The problem is, switching from regular cigs to e-cigs is not “quitting.” They are still smoking – just with a different nicotine delivery system. Thank goodness the assembly saw through the vaping industry’s propaganda and voted to keep the e-cig tax after the former mayor’s veto.

For those who truly want to kick their highly-addictive tobacco habit (including e-cigs), Alaska’s Tobacco Quitline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (or alaskaquitline.com) is free and effective and provides trained counselors and tobacco replacement therapies at no cost.

Studies are revealing that e-cigs contain some of the same deadly toxins as regular cigarettes, such as formaldehyde, lead, and acetone. They are not saving lives. They are most likely going to cut lives short through lung cancer, COPD, heart disease and other major illnesses.

And youngsters watch and imitate adults. If they see their parents casually using vape pens and claiming they are not harmful, they are more likely to take it up themselves. This is even more true when they smell and taste like cotton candy, berries, vanilla cream or 7,500 other flavors now on the market.

This is why a statewide smoke-free workplace law is so important, too. Senate Bill 1, or the “take it outside” bill sponsored by Soldotna Republican Peter Micciche, will likely pass the Senate and then head to the House for consideration in January. Please let your lawmaker know how important this is to you.

Data reveals that children who grow up in smoke-free communities are less likely to use tobacco later and we’re confident this will hold true for e-cigs, too. Preliminary studies also indicate non-users can be exposed to the same potentially harmful chemicals as users, including nicotine, ultrafine particles and volatile organic compounds, according to information from the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society in Alaska. Let’s send a powerful message to Big Tobacco that we won’t be fooled again.

K.T. McKee is the Mat-Su manager for the American Lung Association. She is a former journalist who lives in Meadow Lakes who recently was diagnosed with emphysema after having been exposed to secondhand smoke in her home as a child. She has never smoked. She can be reached in her Wasilla office at 357-3110.