A recent article by Susan Essoyan that accurately described the increased use of vaping products among Hawaii’s youth was a wake-up call for a problem that I believe will continue to grow malignant if we don’t do something about it now (“Youth vaping rates keep rising in Hawaii,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 17).
Think back to the early days of cigarette marketing. Advertising featured fictional doctors who reassured customers that smoking was good for their health. Ads targeting women preyed on their insecurities about weight and diet and encouraged smoking as a healthy alternative to eating sweets. Cartoons and fun images hooked our youth to think that smoking was cool.
Is what we’re seeing with vaping really so different?
E-cigarettes were initially portrayed as a harmless alternative to cigarettes to help people stop smoking. Yet, studies have shown that for every one adult who switches to e-cigarettes, 81 kids will pick up a nicotine habit.
Candy-flavored vaping products with innocuous names such as Gummy Bear and mentholated flavors like Lychee Ice are aimed squarely at our youth, and now we know that 82% of kids who vape started with a flavored product.
The Hawaii Department of Health’s 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that a disturbing 31% of high school teens tried electronic vapor products in the prior 30-day period, and nearly 8% of Hawaii students vape daily. This puts Hawaii teens in the nation’s highest percentile of e-cigarette users despite the legal age to purchase vaping products being 21.
Statistics like these should stoke fear in the heart of any parent. They do in mine. My daughter started vaping as a sophomore in high school. Her struggle with vaping came to a head when she got very sick and experienced what I believe to be nicotine poisoning. As a family, we are getting her the help she needs to quit, but she continues to fight to break its hold.
Vaping is addictive and it will wreak havoc on the health of this generation for years to come if we don’t take action now.
Some might say if I were a better parent, I would’ve stopped my daughter from vaping in the first place. But the vaping industry and lack of regulations around e-cigarette products don’t make our job easy. Vaping devices are designed so they can be easily hidden from parents and teachers. It’s almost conspiratorial how some are disguised as USB thumb drives, Sharpies and even a wristwatch to make them easy to carry and use unobtrusively. Now, disposable vape sticks are becoming popular among teens since they can be easily tossed in the trash after use.
We don’t sell cigarettes and alcohol at kiosks in the mall. Why do we allow e-cigarettes to be sold that way even knowing the dangers they pose and how easily they land in the hands of teens?
What is needed is a comprehensive approach to protect our youth from products that we know are unsafe and whose long-term effects may cause decades of health problems in the future.
Numerous bills are being proposed at the state Legislature to ban flavored nicotine products, as well as tax and regulate e-cigarettes just as we do with other tobacco products. These all make sense, and we ask our legislators to take action now to stop the youth vaping crisis in Hawaii. Our kids deserve an addiction-free future.
Steve Bortle is a parent and teacher at Campbell High School.
