SAN ANTONIO — Vaping among children may have lost its news cycle, but its lure remains intact, and some believe it grew.
"The first thing that's important to realize is that while the headlines are gone, we still have a youth e-cigarette epidemic," Matt Myers said.
Myers is the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. His organization and the National Association of School Nurses want the Food and Drug Administration to ban flavored e-cigarettes.
"As kids are coming back together, the data is showing increased sales of the very flavored products that kids use," he said. "Which is why we're so concerned."
The groups point to FDA and CDC-sponsored data from the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey. According to the survey, over two million kids in middle and high schools use e-cigarettes regularly.
"E-cigarettes are themselves harmful to, particularly to adolescents," he said. "Particularly, in terms of the level of nicotine that's delivered to them, which can impact their brain development."
North East Independent School District said students vaping may have worsened during the pandemic due to student isolation and anxieties.
"It's a huge deal. It's a huge problem," Aubrey Chancellor said. "Vaping is 100% still an issue for teenagers across the country."
Chancellor, the district's Executive Director of Communications, said parents still have a knowledge gap about vaping. The district has counselors educating students about the health risks, NEISD policy, and the law regarding vaping.
"Counselors are actually speaking directly to students in high school and getting face to face with them and letting them know about the dangers," she said.
Per state law, THC found in a vape at school is a felony upon conviction and expulsion from school. NEISD has relaxed a near zero tolerance for students caught in that situation. Instead, the school system reviews factors like intent, discipline, and student history before making disciplinary decisions.
"There were so many students that were facing these expulsions," Chancellor said. "We realized that we'd better serve our students if we really took other things into account."
Revisiting potentially life-altering disciplinary actions, the pandemic and active counseling has not taken to taste for the vapes out of students' mouths.
"Since the pandemic, they've seen a rise [of students vaping]," she said.
Myers, a parent, said he does not promote punishing children for vaping. He believes that energy should get directed at the manufacturers.
"The problem is the people who make products that appeal to kids and market to them. So, we as a community need to come together, supporting our children, not punishing them," he said.
Myers said student vapers like a colorful, flavorful, disposable vape called a "Puff Bar."
"It comes in banana, blueberry, strawberry, every flavor you can imagine," Myers said. "And we've seen a 240% increase in the sales of these products in the last two years."
A request from KENS 5 to Puff Bar's media division went unanswered.
The FDA did respond, saying, "... It's not hard to see the line between the advertising enticing young people, the fruity flavors making it 'go down' easier..."
The federal agency indicated it's not afraid to take action against those who do not follow its directive, but did not mention a ban on flavored e-cigarettes.
"...The FDA remains unwavering in our commitment to protect youth from tobacco initiation and use of e-cigarettes," the agency said.
NEISD's strategy is to do what it does daily: educate.
"So it's not going away. It's not going away any time soon, Chancellor said. "It's really about educating our parents, our public, our community."
If you want to read the entire FDA statement, it's below:
The FDA remains unwavering in our commitment to protect youth from tobacco initiation and use of e-cigarettes, especially when it comes to those that come in appealing flavors and are marketed in ways to increase their appeal to young people.
The 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which the FDA and CDC administer together, showed that e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among high school and middle school students. The findings also continue to show that youth greatly prefer these products when they come in flavors; nearly 85% of those students using e-cigarettes reported using flavored ones.
It's not hard to see the line between the advertising enticing young people, the fruity flavors making it "go down" easier, and the nicotine – which is the chemical in tobacco products that causes addiction – keeping them coming back for more. Addressing this issue really requires a comprehensive approach looking at all of the factors.
One way we're doing this is by our review of these products to determine whether or not they meet the appropriate health standards in the law. Those actions include authorizing 23 products that indeed met the appropriate standards and declining to authorize the millions that did not. For those companies that continue to illegally make or sell unauthorized e-cigarette products, our compliance and enforcement office is watching and gathering evidence to take appropriate action, whether that means issuing a warning letter or, if violations persist, working with the Department of Justice to pursue heavy enforcement actions such as monetary fines, no-tobacco-sale-orders and/or seizures.
We also invest heavily in mass media campaigns aimed at educating youth about the dangers of initiating these products. Our award-wining public education campaign, "The Real Cost," continues to prevent youth from starting and continuing to use tobacco products. The e-cigarette prevention campaign focuses on educating youth about the health consequences and risks of vaping and was developed based on extensive research and uses a mix of marketing and advertising tactics across teen-relevant communication channels to reach youth audiences.
These actions are an important opportunity to achieve significant, meaningful public health gains and advance health equity, especially among our youth. Although there is much work to be done, FDA is fully equipped to take on this challenge and remains committed to using our experience and the available science to act quickly, take action, ensure that industry follows our decisions and to communicate clearly and often with the public throughout the entire process.
ON BACKGROUND: