With youth vaping on the rise, the Marin County Civil Grand Jury recommends in a new report that health officials and educators increase countywide initiatives to prevent the use of electronic cigarettes.
“Marin County is in the midst of a health crisis concerning its youth — vaping,” the grand jury says in the report, “Vaping: An Under-the-Radar Epidemic.”
“Vaping among Marin County seventh, ninth, and 11th graders has more than doubled in the past two years, with 47% of 11th graders admitting to having vaped,” the report states. “As bad as these numbers are, they may actually be higher, as teens notoriously under-report on these types of surveys.”
To combat the vaping epidemic, the report suggests a four-pronged approach that includes limiting the availability of flavored tobacco; educating students, teachers and parents; enforcing flavored tobacco sales bans; and supporting students who already have an addiction to nicotine.
“The grand jury is highlighting an area that I totally agree with — we need to do more,” said Mary Jane Burke, Marin County superintendent of schools, who called it “not just a school issue, it’s a community issue.”
“It will be a collaborative effort countywide that I believe will make the difference,” she said.
Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County public health officer, said the health department and the county Office of Education have teamed up to educate children and parents. Willis said with the grand jury’s recommendation he plans to double down.
“The real answer is a combination of education and policy changes,” he said. “Raising awareness of the issue and sending a clear message that vaping is harmful, especially for young people.”
E-cigarettes, also known as vapes, are battery-operated devices that heat up liquid nicotine to generate an aerosol that users inhale.
Youth vaping has been a growing issue over the past couple of years with the advent of sleek vaporizer devices that resemble computer flash drives. These devices have become even more popular due to the fruity and candy-flavored pods filled with nicotine. Marin middle and high school students are reportedly vaping in class, in school bathrooms, locker rooms, in their cars during lunch breaks and near campus.
Citing a 2018 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the grand jury report says 4.9 million children across the country were using e-cigarettes.
“Tobacco use had been declining in recent years,” the report says. “That trend has been reversed with the increased use of vaping products.”
Bob Curry, head of the county’s tobacco-related disease control program, agreed with the grand jury. He said that with Altria, the parent group of Philip Morris, investing almost $13 billion in Juul comes worry about a new generation of youth who will be lured to vaporizers and become addicted to nicotine.
Although some argue that vaping can be a cessation tool, Jasmine Gerraty, a youth prevention and intern coordinator for the Smoke-Free Marin Coalition, said it seems that the devices have become more of a gateway to smoking.
“We believe that these products have negatively introduced nicotine to a population of users who were not currently using these products before,” she said.
There has been a push to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products across the state.
So far, the county of Marin, Larkspur, Fairfax, Sausalito, San Anselmo and Corte Madera have approved similar bans of flavored tobacco. Bans in Fairfax and Novato do not apply to menthol-flavored products. The grand jury calls for the remaining cities and towns to adopt the flavor ban, and requests that Fairfax and Novato amend their bans to add menthol.
With the spotlight on Juul, the company in 2018 launched a campaign to combat youth usage, including suspending store sales of select flavored pods, and increases online sale controls, among other actions.
On its website, the company says, “JUUL Labs is committed to improving the lives of the world’s one billion adult smokers by providing a true alternative to combustible cigarettes. We do not want youth using our product. It is antithetical to our mission.”
May 20, 2019
Marin Independent Journal
By Adrian Rodriguez
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