The new ‘big tobacco’ is a Mt. Hope High School concern

Introduced as a smoking cessation aid, vaping among young people has become the opposite: a gateway to nicotine addiction

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 10/18/18

Tobacco use among teens is skyrocketing, as the folks at Mt. Hope High School know well.

“I’m not sure about the exact numbers, but a few years ago tobacco use among high school …

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The new ‘big tobacco’ is a Mt. Hope High School concern

Introduced as a smoking cessation aid, vaping among young people has become the opposite: a gateway to nicotine addiction

Posted

Tobacco use among teens is skyrocketing, as the folks at Mt. Hope High School know well.

“I’m not sure about the exact numbers, but a few years ago tobacco use among high school students had dropped to all time low of around 6 percent,” said Deborah DiBiase, Mt. Hope High School principal. “Not anymore. Vaping has brought those numbers back over 20 percent.

Vaping, using a device called an e-cigarette, involves heating and inhaling vaporized liquid, typically containing nicotine, and often with fruity flavors like cherry, grape, pina colada and bubble gum, that make it appealing to young people. Cannabis oil can also be inhaled with a vape.

The exhaled vapor evaporates almost instantly, making vaping difficult to detect, and easy to do almost anywhere, at any time. In class, for example.

“It’s a nationwide problem,” said Superintendent of Schools Mario Andrade. “We’re trying to get out in front of it, to get the message out to students and adults.”

A letter that went out to the Kickemuit School community recently detailed many of the challenges for parents who would like to keep a check on vaping among their kids. Most notably, e-cigarettes blend in with other technology you might find in your student’s backpack, especially Juul, one of the most popular brands, which looks a lot like a thumb drive.

According to the letter, “Vaporizers/e-cigarettes come in all different shapes. Some common styles we see look like a thick pen, a stylus for a iPad, a flash drive, or a small flask with a round chimney coming off the top. The devices are very small and can easily be hidden on a person or blend in with normal backpack items.”

“A little (Juul) pod is equal to smoking a pack of cigarettes,” said Principal DiBiase. “They (students) are getting addicted.”

School leaders aren’t the only one fighting back. Students are too.

“We believe Juul has targeted teens,” said Sean Palumbo, co-president of STAAND (Students Taking Action Against Negative Decisions) and a junior at Mt. Hope. “Their advertising is very specifically targeted to the social media that we’re using. They’re showing ads that show people using vapes.”

“Not only do the flavors appeal to kids,” said Makayla Soares, another STAAND member, “they display them in stores at eye level, near the gum.”

The students of STAAND are not the only ones who feel they’ve been targeted — in the past several months, at least three lawsuits have been filed in U.S. district courts from New York to California accusing Juul of deceptive marketing practices.

Students taking a STAAND

With the help of the administration and support staff at Mt. Hope, the students of STAAND are taking a stand, with a focused marketing campaign designed to educate and ultimately prevent vaping among their peers.

“When kids are involved planning and organizing prevention programs, they are always more successful, and other students are much more receptive,” said Principal DiBiase. “We are also going to be pulling in members of the student council, athletes, and other members of the community, to make sure everyone’s represented.

“It’s not enough to just to do an assembly. We need a consistent, sustaining effort pulling in parents and faculty, and working across middle and high school and even elementary to get the message out.”

The message is one that should resonate with a lot of students. The students of STAAND will be using stark visual aids, including strategically placed “vape carts” around campus; each cart will display some of the many unappealing additives contained in a typical vape cartridge, including formaldehyde, arsenic, and some of the same ingredients found in battery acid and nail polish remover.

“We have to give credit to the South Kingstown Prevention Partnership," said Principal DiBiase. "A lot of these great ideas came from them.”

Mixed in with with the existing #MHBeTheOne campaign, additional social media campaigns targeting parents and members of the community, assemblies, the ninth-grade “Catch My Breath” curriculum, newsletters and presentations for parents, there’s some humor. Posters created by the FDA will soon be appearing in bathroom stalls across campus, with messages including “Some of the grossest things in this bathroom are in that vape,” and “Strangely enough, some students come in here to put crap into their bodies.”

They bring some levity to what is turning into a serious public health issue.

“We’ve found that giving consequences doesn’t change addictive behavior,” said Principal DiBiase. "So we have put our heads together to address this.”

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.