More and more young people under the age of 18 are vaping and using e-cigarettes. Many of them think it is a perfectly safe alternative to smoking. They are wrong.
A local high school student has begun a campaign to raise awareness about the issue, and she will be providing information about vaping Monday, September 30, at 6 p.m. in the Education Building at Piedmont Henry Hospital.
Ella Jongebreur, a senior at Union Grove High School, founded Youth Against the Epidemic (YAE) because of what she was seeing in her own peer group that disturbed her.
“A lot of athletes and smart kids I know were vaping because it seems cool and everyone is doing it,” she said. “I found that many of them aren’t aware of the known dangers of it and, even worse, a lot of the parents didn’t know anything about it.”
Use of these products by anyone under the age of 18 is illegal, just like cigarette smoking, but many high school seniors who are old enough to acquire it legally not only do so, but they also share it with their underage friends either by giving it away or selling it.
A key part of the YAE campaign is lobbying for “Tobacco 21” legislation, which would raise the minimum legal age for tobacco and nicotine sales to 21.
Dr. Stephanie Gordon, Ella’s mother, gave a hypothetical example of how online sales of vaping products is virtually unregulated. “My 15-year-old could get on Amazon or Juul’s website and buy it,” she said. “It would come to my house in the mail without a signature requirement before I come home from work. Now she has it and I don’t know it.”
The Henry County School System is taking the problem seriously, judging from comments at the most recent Board of Education meeting. Dr. April Madden, the district’s Chief Family and Student Support Services Officer, told the board that student vaping was an issue about which her office would be particularly proactive.
Jongebreur said she and her fellow students participated in a seminar at the start of the school year and were informed that anyone caught using these products during school or on school grounds would face serious consequences. (All school district properties are designated as smoke-free zones.) But she has seen little if any action taken to address the issue beyond that.
At her September 30 event, she will be joined by a representative of Piedmont Henry’s respiratory therapy department. She recently spoke to a group in Rockdale County and is filling up her calendar with opportunities to address local community and church groups on the issue.
“I founded Youth Against the Epidemic to spread awareness and make us a more educated community,” she said.
Updated information can be found at youthagainsttheepidemic.weebly.com
