With the school year underway, now is a good time to talk to your teenagers about vaping.
E-cigarettes, or vapes, are the most popular tobacco product among youth in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Texas Department of State Health Services estimates that more than 5,700 teens start vaping every day and almost 40 percent of kids have vaped at least once, so chances are your teen has already tried it or soon will. Young people vape largely because of targeted advertising, fruity or candy flavors and social influences. And once they start, it’s hard to stop due to the addictive nature of nicotine.
Dr. Olakunle Iluyomade, a pulmonologist at Texas Health Presbyterian Flower Mound, said the rising popularity of e-cigarettes over the past 10-20 years has teenagers and adults perceiving vaping as a safe way to smoke, but that’s not the case.
“Over the last 20-30 years, we’ve made a lot of gains in de-normalizing cigarette use,” Iluyomade said. “The public perception is that tobacco is not a good thing, but vaping has reversed some of that progress. Teenagers see vaping as a normal thing.”
Iluyomade said vaping can create a dependence on nicotine and it can cause and/or worsen respiratory problems, particularly asthma, and it can create a harmful habit that’s hard to break.
“For teenagers, vaping tends to be a gateway drug to the use of cigarettes and illegal drugs,” he said.
In 2020, half of middle school students and one-third of high school students who vaped also used other tobacco products, according to the CDC. The data backs that up. In 2016, nearly one-third of U.S. middle and high school students who had ever use an e-cigarette reported using marijuana in the device.
“Cannabinoid vaping can cause acute damage to the lungs, and patients can end up in the hospital on oxygen,” Iluyomade said. “We’ve seen a few of these patients get really sick and end up on a ventilator. They can get really sick, really quickly.”
E-cigarettes pose a risk even when not in use due to their batteries, which generate heat and may malfunction, leading to explosions or burns in users’ pockets.
Iluyomade said the most important thing parents can do to discourage their kids from vaping is by leading by example.
“The key thing is what children see,” he said. “They’re more likely to start vaping when they see parents, family members or role models smoking or vaping. You can’t smoke and tell your kids not to, you’ve lost the battle right there.”
Additionally, parents should talk openly with their kids about the short- and long-term risks of vaping and what it can lead to.
“Let them know that vaping is not the harmless, benign habit that the companies are trying to advertise it to be,” he said. “It hasn’t been around long enough to determine the long-term risks, and they might not be as pronounced as smoking cigarettes, but we’ll learn more as time goes on and there is no doubt that there will be long-term risks, such as chronic lung disease, or possibly lung cancer, or maybe something else. It can also cause an increased heart rate that can increase the risk of heart disease over time.”
The fact that vaping is habit-forming should be a deal-breaker, too.
“The idea of being addicted is not a good thing,” Iluyomade said. “You vape because you’re addicted to nicotine.”
Visit YesQuit.org for expert advice about how to quit using any tobacco product. Call the Texas Quitline at 1-877-YES-QUIT to connect with a professional who can guide you through the process and recommend local support programs.
