A troubling increase in the use of e-cigarettes by local teens has area schools and Lambton Public Health (LPH) sounding the alarm.
LPH Supervisor of Health Promotion Donna Schmidtmeyer said the number of school notifications -- for students caught vaping on school property -- went from five to 103 between 2018 and 2019.
Post-pandemic, she said, vaping has become even more of a problem.
"There could be several reasons," Schmidtmeyer said. "One would be the industry itself with the products that they're offering being flavoured to appeal to youth, and the youth themselves talk about wanting to use these products for stress management."
She said similar explanations were given when the use of tobacco products was popular.
"We've been working very closely with schools to help address this. The products are so highly addictive that one presentation isn't going to help anybody stop using the product. So, it's very much a partnership where we have provided training with educators and school staff," Schmidtmeyer said.
According to Health Canada's Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey done during the 2021-2022 school year, 29 per cent of Canadian students in Grades 7 to 12 have experimented with e-cigarettes, and 17 per cent had vaped in the past month.
"We want to prepare youth before they get to high school, so that they're more aware of what the products are and hopefully they'll make an informed choice not to use the product," Schmidtmeyer said.
LPH also helps enforce the rules if students are caught vaping in a prohibited space.
"Enforcement officers don't just go in and charge, they also work with the youth, and they talk with the youth about why they're choosing to use vape products, tell them about the legislation, and what the fines could be if they continued to use [the vape] and got charged," Schmidtmeyer said.
Vaping, whether it's nicotine or cannabis, can disrupt brain development and impact lung health.
Those are risks that, according to Schmidtmeyer, most youth, and even the teachers, staff, and parents interacting with them on a daily basis, don't understand.
"We have an initiative we call Talk Early Talk Often so that we can prepare adults to talk with youth about vape products. But, also about other substances, like tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol," Schmidtmeyer said.
She said by sharing resources, and helping inform the community, they're hoping everyone will be more aware of what happens when these products are used.
