The plume of smoke from a vape cigarette is becoming a common sight seen not only in Platte County but most places in the United States.
The Platte County Health Department, Tri-County Mental Health and numerous school districts talked to the Citizen about what is quickly becoming an epidemic.
The usage has skyrocketed in recent years and a troubling number includes the usage of students.
Sherrie Kisker, a community health specialist, noted that smoking among youth is down to only 2 percent, but vaping is up.
“It’s very important that schools let students know the dangers of vaping,” Kisker said. “Because almost all vapes have nicotine in them, students are becoming addicted at young ages and that addiction to nicotine will continue throughout their lives.”
High schools across the area are dealing with the issue in a variety of ways. Vaping falls into the tobacco usage violation in handbooks. (See adjoining story).
Platte County assistant principal Dr. Matt Messick stated it has been years since he has grabbed a pack of cigarettes from a student.
When asked about e-cigarettes, the answer is much different. On the last day of school, the administration caught a student with a vape.
He said he believed the usage in e-cigs at Platte County High School from 2016 to 2018 has quadrupled “It’s a beast and it’s not getting any better,” he said. “Often times kids don’t understand what they are putting into their bodies.”
Sheri Miller, a retired educator and administrator, noted the vape issues started five years ago but has became an issue over the past three years.
“For every one that we may stop, we have 80 that use that would’ve never been tobacco users,” said Miller, a youth prevention specialist at Tri-County.
E-cigarettes, such as JUUL, is a battery-powered device that heats up nicotine to produce an aerosol that is inhaled. Miller noted the chemicals in the aerosols have been linked to cancer and it is important that people realize it isn’t just water being vaped.
Kisker noted that 99 percent of all e-juice contains nicotine and like cigarettes, it will cause addiction.
The PCHD noted that the aerosol has a chemical such as diacetyl, which has been linked to lung disease. Another concern is the usage of THC oil — marijuana — into vapes.
The U.S. Surgeon General stated the use of e-cigs is a public health concern.
According to research done, one in four high school students and one out of 14 middle schoolers have claimed to vape.
A recent Park Hill Community Alliance for Youth luncheon focused on vaping usage. Schools are confiscating the devices from underage students, many of who aren’t aware of the consequences of using vapes.
Statistics from the 2018 Missouri Student Survey showed that e-cigarettes usage in county, as a whole, has nearly doubled for students between sixth and 12th grade since 2014.
The 2018 survey showed that nearly one in three seniors surveyed have reported using e-cigarettes.
Usage of e-cigs steadily went up from sixth graders — about five percent to try — up to seniors, where nearly 40 percent admits ever using it. Seniors also had the highest usage in the past month at just less than 30 percent surveyed.
The other three grades at the high school level showed nearly 20 percent of each grade have tried it.
Vaping is billed as a healthy alternative to smoking in advertisements. JUUL recently took out a full page ad in numerous major newspapers across the country saying they are conducting secret shopping visits to check to see if the product is being sold to minors. The ad says ‘for adult smokers only.’
Officials warn though due to the relative newness of the product the long-term issues with using a vape is still unknown. Early reports focus on the still developing brain of adolescents and the nicotine can cause mood disorders and lower impulse control.
A single JUUL pod container as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes and the use of e-cigarettes contains aerosol — not just harmless water vapor that is a common belief. Miller said one pod is the same as 20 cigarettes.
The spike in usage has corresponded with the increase of advertisement, led by JUUL, which mirrors cigarette ads of more than 50 years ago.
The Center for Disease Control noted in a press release last year that the sales of JUUL grew more than seven-fold from 2016 to 2017.
Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, noted the nicotine containing kid-friendly flavors are worrisome.
The CDC is involved in an ongoing investigation of 193 cases of negative health outcomes due to vaping in 22 states, the agency disclosed in a report last week.
Earlier this month, a 19-year-old near Chicago says he’s a vaping addict and sued JUUL, alleging the company designed and marketed to young people, though a spokesman for the company said it was always market as an alternative to regular cigarettes for adult smokers.
That is the first of three tidbits to come from Illinois in terms of vaping. Last week, Lake County filed a lawsuit against JUUL for creating a ‘public health crisis’ and on Friday, Aug. 26, the first death tied to vaping was reported in Illinois.
The patient, whose name, age, sex and hometown have not been released, was hospitalized with severe respiratory illness after recently using e-cigarettes, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“This tragic death in Illinois reinforces the serious risks associated with e-cigarette products,” Redfield said. “Vaping exposes users to many different substances for which we have little information about related harms — including flavorings, nicotine, cannabinoids and solvents.
JUUL sales went from 2.2 million in 2016 to 16.2 million last year.
Those numbers gathered by the CDC are just from in-store retail sales and don’t include Internet sales or vape stores. The CDC noted a survey found that about half of those youth using e-cigarettes obtain the device from a friend or family member.
“There are vape shops everywhere and they are currently as easy to get as cigarettes,” Kisker said. “Kids can still go to their local Walgreens, Target, QuikTrip. Most students get their vape supplies from friends, siblings or on the Internet. It is still easy to lie about your age on the Internet sites to purchase vapes.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently released numbers showing that e-cigarette use among high school students has grown 78 percent and middle schoolers up 48 percent from 2017 to 2018. The FDA added of the 5 million minors that use tobacco products, 3.6 million use e-cigs, making them the most popular choice.
Stores such as Walgreens have decided to not sell tobacco to anyone under 21. Starting next month, Walmart and Sam’s Club will follow suite by raising the age to 21 and will discontinue the sale of fruit/dessert nicotine flavors for electronic nicotine delivery.
There are a number of area towns — Parkville, Smithville, Gladstone, Liberty and Excelsior Springs — that are Tobacco 21 communities.
“We really need to educate our parents, educate our community,” Miller said. “It hasn’t been around long so there are no long-term studies to use to look at. It will ßtake a lot of education and a lot of sources and over time, schools implementing policies to put vaping in line with regular, combustible cigarettes.”