GREENFIELD — Brandee Bastin’s been helping people quit using tobacco for 16 years, and she’s never seen anything like this.
Bastin, Hancock Regional Hospital’s tobacco initiative coordinator, has seen a rapid rise in teens using e-cigarettes, including those disguised to look like thumb drives and pens, in the last two years, she said.
As the Food and Drug Administration warns of teen e-cigarette use rising to epidemic levels, local agencies are working to educate members of the public on the dangers of electronic nicotine delivery systems. E-cigarettes, ENDS, or vapes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid to produce an aerosol — which usually contains nicotine, the addictive chemical in tobacco — that users inhale, Bastin said.
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“Two years ago, about 10 percent of high schoolers reported they were vaping, now it’s probably quadrupled,” Bastin said at a recent community event to educate the public about vaping and its risks. “This is an addiction, not a fad.”
In the last year, Bastin has held convocations at county schools, reaching some 4,000 students. She recalls during one such convocation, she was speaking about one type of e-cigarette, JUUL, which is popular among teens, and a section of students cheered when she mentioned them.
The FDA on Sept. 12 announced it issued more than 1,300 warnings and fines to retailers who illegally sold e-cigarette products, including JUUL. The FDA discovered the illegal sales during a nationwide, undercover “blitz” of retailers both brick-and-mortar and online this summer, according to a news release.
The FDA plans to take significant steps to address the issue of both illegal e-cigarette sales and the rising use of such devices by teens, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in the news release.
These steps included asking five e-cigarette companies — Vuse, Blu, JUUL, MarkTen XL, and Logic, which comprise some 97 percent of the U.S. market for e-cigarettes — to submit in the next two months plans describing how they will address the widespread youth access and use of their products, according to a news release.
If the companies fail to submit a plan, or fail to submit an adequate plan, the FDA may take action requiring the brands to stop selling some or all of their flavored products until they receive authorization prior to sales and meet all of their obligations under the law, according to the news release.
“We see clear signs that youth use of electronic cigarettes has reached an epidemic proportion, and we must adjust certain aspects of our comprehensive strategy to stem this clear and present danger,” Gottlieb said in a news release. “This starts with the actions we’re taking today to crack down on retail sales of e-cigarettes to minors. We will also revisit our compliance policy that extended the dates for manufacturers of certain flavored e-cigarettes to submit applications for premarket authorization. I believe certain flavors are one of the principal drivers of the youth appeal of these products.”
Austyn Tift, manager of Indy’s Vape Escape, an e-cigarette store that opened in August at 1929 N. State St., said he believes the ‘big five’ e-cigarette companies cited by the FDA made a mistake by advertising and selling at gas stations, because he believes many gas station employees don’t card customers.
Only people age 18 or older are welcome in the recently opened specialty store, and every person attempting to make a purchase is carded, he said.
The store also only sells larger, open-tank style vaping devices, though it does sell many different flavors of liquid, including some brands that have been cited by the FDA for having packaging enticing to youngsters, Tift said.
Experts say the concealability of e-cigarettes sold at gas stations and convenience stores are part of the reason they’re so popular among teens.
JUUL, one of the most popular e-cigarettes on the market, looks like a USB drive and is easily concealed, Bastin said. The brand makes up some 55 percent of the e-cigarette market, she said.
“This is not a harmless product,” Bastin said during a recent event at Brandywine Christian Church.
She added that each pod of liquid, which amounts to about 200 puffs, contains the equivalent amount of nicotine in an entire pack of cigarettes.
Part of JUUL’s appeal to teens, in addition to its youth-friendly flavors like mango and creme brulee, is its affordability compared to cigarettes, Bastin said. It’s about $16 for a four-pack of pods, which she said is about half as much as the equivalent amount of cigarettes.
Still, if a user only puffed on one JUUL pod a day, they will spend almost $1,500 a year, she said.
Cheri Cole of Greenfield attended the public information meeting at Brandywine Community Church recently with her son, a 15-year-old, who was recently caught vaping.
She said she hoped the consequences Bastin described, including devices that exploded and burned or injured users, caused her son to think twice about the habit.
Teens and young adults who use e-cigarettes are more likely to move on to other tobacco products, including cigarettes or chewing tobacco, Bastin said. While a comprehensive report released by The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine shows e-cigarette use exposes smokers to fewer dangerous chemicals than traditional, combustible cigarettes, Bastin said nicotine can still have many negative effects on the body.
She shared information from Tobacco-Free Life, a nonprofit organization started by anti-smoking advocates. The organization’s website states nicotine’s side effects include lung spasms, muscle tremors, insulin resistance, changes to heart rate and blood pressure, irritability, sleep disturbances and many more issues.
Bastin said she is working with county schools to change the response to students caught with e-cigarettes, because just giving them an in-school suspension and throwing away the device doesn’t stop the addiction. She’s trying to get districts to begin requiring students caught vaping to attend the hospital’s free tobacco cessation program.
“We need to come together as a community to address this,” she said. “Don’t dwell on the punitive aspect. If a child can’t get through a school day without vaping, that’s an addiction.”
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Brandee Bastin, Hancock Regional Hospital tobacco initiative coordinator, will host a free informational meeting about vaping at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 23, Mt. Vernon High School auditorium, 8112 N. County Road 200W.
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Hancock Regional Hospital and the Hancock County Tobacco-Free Coalition host free smoking cessation classes at the hospital, 801 N. State St., Greenfield.
The next classes will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. on the Mondays of Oct. 1, 8, 15 and 22.
For more information or to register, contact Bastin at 317-468-4162 or email [email protected].
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