GUELPH – With the well-being of children and youth part of its strategic plan, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) held a virtual information session for parents and guardians on vaping.
Associate medical officer of health Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum led the one-hour session on Jan. 24, presenting facts and answering questions posed by his audience prior to the session.
“Vaping is an emerging issue,” Tenenbaum said. “It’s something we’re concerned about, and we hope to provide you with hands-on tips on how to engage with your children.”
Tenenbaum said vaping first emerged on the scene in the early 2000s as a smoking cessation tool.
E-cigarettes would take nicotine in liquid form, heat the fluid and a person would inhale the vapour. The idea is to quit smoking completely and eventually to ease off e-cigarettes as well.
“But we’re seeing people use [vapes] beyond that purpose. Now we’re seeing people who never smoked cigarettes using them,” he said.
The look of the product has changed as well. E-cigarettes looked like a cigarette. Now vapes can look like pens or USB thumb drives – small, discreet and easily hidden.
And what you put in the vape has changed as well. Now cannabis can be vaped and some of the liquids are fruit flavoured – an obvious marketing ploy directed at youth.
Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum.
Tenenbaum said there has been a “dramatic” increase in usage among high school students, where one in four high school students admit to vaping.
According to the most recent Well-being and Health Youth Survey, 15 per cent of students from Grades 7 to 12 report they had vaped in the past year. Of that group, 25% were female and 19% male.
In the WDGPH region there are 196 stores that sell vape products, compared to 15 LCBO stores and 27 outlets that sell beer or wine, Tenenbaum said.
So in terms of restricted access, vape products are available and accessible to youth.
And now there is a nicotine pouch that goes between the gum and lip and nicotine is absorbed that way. With all the new products, it’s hard to keep up, Tenenbaum said.
According to self-reporting, students choose to vape to relieve stress and manage depression and anxiety.
Social influence and a desire to fit in, curiosity, easy access and addiction are other reasons youth might give it a try.
“Vaping is not a solution to anxiety, but it’s perceived as a solution,” Tenenbaum said, adding it doesn’t take many hits of nicotine to become addicted.
Nicotine, when absorbed into the lungs, can affect the brain, lungs and the heart. Youth are still developing, and nicotine can harm or impair that development.
“That’s the thing,” Tenenbaum said. Because it’s a relatively new product, “we don’t know the long-term effects. And we won’t know the full picture for decades.”
“We would rather not use young people as test cases for future harms,” added WDGPH communications specialist Danny Williamson, who emceed the session.
Public health’s role is to monitor retail outlets that sell vape products and ensure everything is up to regulations.
It also works with school boards and other agencies on the issue of vaping/smoking among youth.
But parents see their kids every day and there’s great opportunity to guide youth away from these harmful products, Tenenbaum said.
He suggested knowing the facts, being open and calm in conversation, and putting yourself in your child’s shoes and try to remember what it’s like to navigate the social and academic pressures of high school.
Acknowledge their independence, ask open-ended questions and listen, Tenenbaum advised.
“You also have to be ready to hear that they might have vaped already,” he said. “You can still have good conversations about how to modify their choices.”
If stress is a reason to vape, help your young person learn better ways to handle stress. If it’s peer pressure, help them develop confidence to go against the grain.
“This is the start of the conversation, not the end,” said Williamson.
WDGPH has a page on its website with factual information on vaping that will be updated as new research emerges.
There are also links to research and initiatives by other agencies such as Quash, a stop vaping app for youth; the Stop Vaping Challenge, another app from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit; and the Smoker’s Helpline, which offers online resources and a texting program to help youth quit vaping or smoking.
About 75 people attended the WDGPH session. For those who missed it, a recording can be viewed by clicking here.
