A new campaign to fight vaping and tobacco use among teens has been launched by the Berrien County Health Department. Prevention specialist Lisa Peeples-Hurst tells us teen vaping has gone up since COVID while the awareness of the dangers of vaping has gone down.
“What happens is the kids start using and become addicted to nicotine this way and some of them even use both vaping and traditional cigarettes,” Peeples-Hurst said. “So, we’re talking about almost a double exposure as far as health risk.”
Peeples-Hurst says department’s new Escape the Vape campaign seeks to educate community members younger than 21 about the negative effects of vaping. The problem is that it’s perceived as cool.
“When you go by a lot of vape retailers, there are neon lights, there are flavors of E-juice that are attractive to younger populations.”
Peeples-Hurst says a teen sees a cool-looking vaping device and then a flavor like cotton candy, and that’s where the trouble starts. In addition to being addictive, she says vaping can worsen mood and increase anxiety while creating a risk of lung disease and worsened symptoms for things like asthma. She urges parents to speak to their kids about the dangers of vaping. You can find out more right here.
