HWN Suggests

Addicted to Vaped Nicotine, Teenagers Have No Clear Path to Quitting

Unfortunately, methods for quitting cigarettes can’t be grafted onto vapes. While cutting down on daily cigarettes can include simple math — cutting back, say, from the 20 cigarettes in a pack to 18 to 14 and so on — an analogous method doesn’t readily apply to vaping. That’s because the amount of nicotine each person inhales and then absorbs through e-cigarettes is difficult to measure. A formula for reducing cigarettes doesn’t readily translate to pods or cartridges. Moreover, medications for breaking nicotine’s hold over cigarette smokers, including nicotine patches and prescriptions, don’t work for everyone and are mostly approved just for adults. In short, establishing tapering protocols…

read full article

Featured

 Nic Sick: The Dangers of Youth Vaping

Nic Sick is a documentary about Idaho teens struggling to overcome vape addiction.

 Teenagers Keep Vaping Despite Crackdowns on E-Cigarettes

While use among youths has fallen since the peaks of 2018-19, resumption of in-school classes this year shows students still have access to flavored, disposable vapes.

 The Risks of Another Epidemic: Teenage Vaping

“We’re stepping backward from all the advances we’ve made in tobacco control,” one investigator said.

Articles of Interest

Do E-Cigarettes Do More Good Than Harm?

A debate over which is bigger: the damage from the rise in teenage vaping or the benefits of using e-cigarettes to stop tobacco smoking.

Ever tried telling a teen to stop Juuling? These experts have a tip

Avoid D.A.R.E.-style messaging and tap into kids’ sense of rebellion.

FDA: we might have to ban some e-cigarettes to stop teens from vaping

The agency is eyeing a crackdown on flavored e-cigs in the face of an “epidemic” of teen use.

How Juul Hooked Kids and Ignited a Public Health Crisis

Though Juul is not the only e-cigarette for sale in the U.S., it is largely blamed for the vaping explosion and controls about 50% of the market, putting a sharp focus on the company.

How to Help Teenagers Quit Vaping

Though options are limited for now, they exist. For starters, parents should recognize that they are confronting an addiction to nicotine, which is hard to break.

Juul will stop selling teens’ favorite e-cigarette flavors in stores

Juul announced it will no longer sell four of its flavored e-cigarette cartridges in stores, and will discontinue using its Facebook and Instagram accounts in the US. It will keep selling the cartridges on its website, which asks users to verify that they are at least 21 years old. According to a company press release, Juul will stop selling cucumber, mango, creme, and fruit flavors in stores or gas stations. However, it will continue to sell mint, menthol, and tobacco flavors, because those are already sold as tasting like “cigarettes.”

Juul, the vape device teens are getting hooked on, explained

If you’ve seen people sucking on USB flash drives, they’re probably “Juuling.”

My teen is addicted to vaping. How can I help them quit and manage their withdrawal symptoms?

Young people are at greater risk of nicotine dependence than adults and can develop dependence faster. Once nicotine-dependent, a person will experience withdrawal symptoms if they reduce or cease their use. These symptoms can include irritability, frustration, or anger; anxiety; difficulty concentrating; increased appetite; restlessness; depressed mood; and insomnia.

Researchers Note Latest Vaping Concern: ‘Hacked’ E-Cigarette Devices

Although e-cigarette use among adolescents and teenagers has reportedly declined, concerns remain, including ways that young people modify or “hack” their devices. A recent study published online in Pediatrics and authored by Yale Department of Psychiatry scientists showed that as many as four out of every 10 teenagers and young adults who vape (a term for using an e-cigarette device) modify the devices, potentially risking lung injury, burns, and allowing for covert use of marijuana.

Scientists are beginning to learn how vaping impacts teens — and the results are troubling

Vaping appears to be wildly popular among teens who use e-cigs illegally. And in an ironic twist, teens who try vaping are at a far higher risk of becoming smokers compared with teens who don't.

Sweet and Fruity E-Cigarettes Thrive Despite Teen-Vaping Crackdown

Disposable e-cigarettes, which have escaped FDA restrictions, make up more than half of the vaping market.

Teen Vapers Who Want To Quit Look For Help Via Text

Social media is often blamed for helping popularize e-cigarettes among teens. Now it may be playing a role in quitting, another Chatfield freshman points out. But do the students think it will make a difference? "I do, yeah. For a lot of people, actually," the freshman says. "I've known kids who have stopped vaping because of it."

Teens on Vaping: What They Really Think

From safety to how they buy it, young people got real about hitting the Juul.

The number of US teens who vape more than doubled in the last year

The FDA has become increasingly worried about teens using e-cigarettes. Although the products are often marketed as a replacement for adults trying to curb tobacco use, many e-cigarettes are sweetly flavored, which is a draw for teens. Some of these flavors contain dubious chemicals that have not yet been proven to be completely safe. There’s also evidence that teenagers who smoke e-cigarettes are more likely to switch over to traditional tobacco after less than a year.

The Price of Cool: A Teenager, a Juul and Nicotine Addiction

E-cigarettes may help tobacco smokers quit. But the alluring devices can swiftly induce a nicotine habit in teenagers who never smoked. This is the tale of one person’s struggle.

The sweetness of e-cigarette flavors is more likely to get teens hooked than the nicotine

The researchers found that sweetness was the most desired common denominator; that is, even a sweet-flavored e-cigarette with no nicotine was preferred over one without the sweetness, and with nicotine. This was also reflected in neural responses: Even without being presented an actual e-cigarette to smoke, participants’ brains responded more to cues that were associated with sweetness. And if adolescents first start smoking unflavored vapes with nicotine, the addition of sweet flavors could make them continue.

Vaping damages young people’s lungs as much as smoking, study suggests

Research challenges idea that vaping could be healthier alternative to smoking, say authors of research.

Vaping Moves From the Bathroom to the Classroom

Schools are trying to outsmart students who hide vape pens in shirt sleeves and pencil cases; ‘We’re pretty sure a kid was hiding one in his underwear’

Vaping now more common than smoking among young people – and the risks go beyond lung and brain damage

Most of these children wanted to try vaping “out of curiosity” and were aware of the promotion of vapes in shops and online. Other motivations for using vapes included the ease of obtaining them, the flavours (young people are particularly attracted to fruity or dessert flavours) and help connecting with peers. But vaping comes with many risks to young people, including harm to the lungs and brain.

Vaping’s Dangers Drive Teens to Try to Quit

Young people are seeking treatment, but doctors say public-health response is inadequate.

Young adults who started vaping as teens still can't shake the habit

For years, slick marketing by e-cigarette companies, and the allure of sweet, fruity or even candy-like flavors and names, led teens to try vaping. As more high schoolers and even younger kids picked up the behavior, doctors and researchers warned it could lead to widespread addiction, creating a 'Generation Vape.' Now, new data about substance use among young adults suggests that many of those former teen vapers haven't quit.

Resources

AVOID

Your organization strives to keep kids healthy. AVOID can help you talk to kids about the risk of vapes using science-based brief educational videos.

FUM

We're on the mission to accelerate humanity's breakup with destructive habits, and for us, that starts with you.

LUVV Inhealers

These unique nicotine-free formulas include combinations of vitamins, and naturally occurring compounds to help you take on the demands of your busy life.

PAVe

PAVe (Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes) is a grassroots organization founded by three concerned moms as a response to the current youth vaping epidemic, the most serious adolescent public-health crisis our country has faced in decades.

The Real Cost

You already know that tobacco is bad for you, but even experimenting can come with a cost.

Truth

We're not here to criticize your choices, or tell you not to smoke. We're here to arm everyone – smokers and non-smokers – with the tools to make change.