Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
As Marin students return to school, educators and health officials are hoping nearly $500,000 in state grants announced this month will help them curb the rise in youth vaping.
The Novato Unified, Tamalpais Union and Ross Valley school districts will share the award, which will be distributed annually for three years. The tobacco-use prevention education grants from the California Department of Education award Novato Unified $130,278; Tam Union, $224,100 and Ross Valley, $114,737.
“We’re thrilled three school districts were awarded grants, but this issue really affects all schools,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County public health officer, in an email. “The plan is to spread the programs and tools developed under the grants to all school districts, to raise the bar countywide. These grants are really going to accelerate our progress.”
Vaporizers, also known as vapes or e-cigarettes, are battery-operated devices that heat up liquid nicotine to generate an aerosol that users inhale. Aside from assertions that e-cigarettes can birth a nicotine addition that eventually can expand to regular cigarettes, vaping is being researched for possible links to a variety of health problems — including neurological damage and lung problems such as coughing or asthma.
Chemicals in vaping fluid also can cause acute lung injuries and contribute to eventual lung and cardiovascular disease, according to the American Lung Association. According to the California Healthy Kids Survey, youth vaping has increased from one in 10 to one in three students, Willis has noted.
Novato Unified, which received an earlier anti-tobacco state grant of $600,000 in December 2018, is launching a pilot project this year to install vaping detectors at its schools and has hired a school resource officer to help in education, counseling and enforcement efforts, said Amie Carter, assistant superintendent. With the new grant, the district also will hire a full-time educator to do outreach on tobacco-related health issues, Carter said.
“Novato Unified is dedicated to teaching the whole child and ensuring that education in this critical area has priority for our students,” Carter said.
Rick Bagley, the Ross Valley superintendent, said the district help with education and outreach to its younger, elementary and middle school grades.
“With youth engagement as a major theme of this grant, our application targeted broad focus areas such as counseling and intervention, awareness and prevention and social-emotional learning,” he said in an email.
At Tam Union, Wes Cedros, senior director of student services, said the grant would be used to “expand and strengthen our tobacco prevention, intervention and cessation programming at all five of our schools. A special emphasis will be placed on expanding support for our students of color, our LGBTQ+ student community and the students at our alternative schools.”
“The grant will allow us to secure drug and alcohol counselors and some nursing services to deliver those services at our schools,” Cedros added. “It will build on our existing relationships with local nonprofits and community-based organizations, such as Marin City Health and Wellness Center, Spahr Center, BACR and Huckleberry Youth Programs.”
Cedros said Tam Union “already has vaping information and prevention sessions that we use for students who are caught vaping or using tobacco on campus. We also do prevention and information sessions for students delivered in our social issues classes – a mandatory semester class for freshmen.”
Tam Union also offers parent education nights, special ninth- and 10th-grade prevention workshops, schoolwide poster campaigns and awareness events throughout the year. The district also will be installing vaping detector devices that are being provided through a separate grant secured through the Central Marin Police Authority.
The new state awards come two months after the Marin County Civil Grand Jury released its report, “Vaping: An Under-the-Radar Epidemic.”
According to the report, vaping among Marin County seventh-, ninth- and 11th-graders has “more than doubled in the last two years.” Some 47% of 11th-graders admitted to having vaped, the report says, but the numbers “may actually be higher, as teens notoriously under-report on these types of surveys.”
Jasmine Gerraty, a youth prevention and intern coordinator for the Smoke-Free Marin Coalition — who also coordinates with the schools and county health officials — said she is working hard to change misconceptions about vaping for smoking cessation — even though e-cigarettes are often touted as a safe smoking substitute.
“The FDA has not approved the electronic smoking devices for smoking cessation,” said Gerraty, who was hired through Bay Area Community Resources. “Instead, it’s the opposite: The vapes can be a gateway to cigarette smoking for youths who had never before been exposed to nicotine.”
Bob Curry, director of Marin County’s tobacco related disease control program, said the county, in tandem with the schools, is ramping up its education efforts.
“We have hired a second full-time youth educator through a contract with Bay Area Community Resources,” he said. “This new educator will allow us to work with more groups of youth in addition to assisting our young people who are currently addicted to nicotine and need help to quit.”
The county is also increasing its advertising budget to create more awareness around the dangers of tobacco and nicotine use, Curry said.
On the policy front, Willis and others are monitoring local ordinances to see how they can be changed to deter youth from buying e-cigarettes.
“There’s still a lot of policy work to be done to limit access,” Willis said. “Most, but not all, Marin towns and cities have issued bans on the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products.”
In addition, Willis said he and other are watching the progress of state Senate Bill 39, which would limit internet access to vaping products for youth. SB 39 is making its way through the Legislature, Willis said.
“Marin youth have found internet vendors make online purchasing very easy,” he added.
At last tally, the county of Marin, as well as Larkspur, Sausalito, San Anselmo, Corte Madera, San Rafael, Novato and Fairfax, have approved bans of flavored tobacco. The ban in Novato does not apply to menthol-flavored products and small cigars. Mill Valley is the only city with no protections; Tiburon and Ross don’t have any tobacco retailers. The grand jury calls for Mill Valley to adopt a ban and for Novato to add menthol flavored products to its ban.
“The fact is that flavoring is a contributor to new people choosing to use tobacco and becoming addicted and we can address that through policy,” Willis said.
August 16, 2019
Marin Independent Journal
By Keri Brenner
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