August 21, 2020
Your teens are 5-9 times more likely to contact COVID if they ever vape and/or vape and smoke. According to a recent Stanford University study published in the Journal of Adolescent Medicine, 27% of US teens have vaped in the last 30 days!
The old saying, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop” seems to fit in this COVID summer. In the span of 10 days, I have had more vaping consults with parents and teens than I had in the prior 6 months. I suspect a combination of boredom and aggressive vaping social media advertising to be the cause of this recent vaping explosion.
PUFF BAR, while a leading culprit has been ordered to stop selling in the US; however, other knockoffs like KRAVE are filing the void.
Sit down and talk with your teens in a nonjudgmental way and discuss the dangers of vaping and ask them if they’ve ever tried it. If you need assistance, please call us for information or to set up a consultation.
Closing Thoughts:
- Truth Initiative – Anti-vaping campaign resources
- KRAVE – Is a new disposable product that gives a bigger nicotine head rush and has temporarily replaced PUFF BARS and JUUL. However, JUUL will likely be back once the FDA (sadly) clears their new products that they have submitted to market in the fall or winter.
- Parents Against Vaping and E-Cigarettes (PAVe) – Please join this growing advocacy network! Check out this excellent podcast of theirs, featuring the authors of the Stanford Study.
- STOP THE WHACK-A-MOLE – A federal bill that passed the US House that would ban all flavored products, including mint and menthol vape, regardless if the product is pod based or disposable. Contact your legislators and ask them to support this bill.
- EMAIL – Email FDA Tobacco Control Director Mitchell Zeller at Mitchell.Zeller@FDA.HHS.gov and demand a total ban on flavors (including mint and menthol in all forms)
- Nicotine Drug Dealers – A popular way teens are getting their vaping products is through local vape dealers, teens text their dealer and meet them at sites away from their house to buy their vapes.
We are anticipating a higher spike of vaping use as schools begin reopening, be on the look out for suspicious behavior from your teen.
- All of us at Westwood-Mansfield Pediatric Associates