TORRINGTON – While the world waits with pursed lips hiding behind surgical masks for the latest information from the COVID-19 quarantine zones, most people likely have daily encounters with an epidemic that’s ruining the lives of kids and teenagers nationwide – and it’s very likely they don’t even realize it. 

This epidemic takes the form of asthma inhalers, ink pens, jump drives, cosmetics, even toys – and the creators of vaping devices get more creative every day. 

Vaping was originally intended as a method to help people stop smoking cigarettes, but in recent years, vape devices and nicotine-heavy e-juices have made their way into the hands of children and teenagers. 

It’s not a surprise, though. 

The e-juices – which give the devices their flavor, potency and contains nicotine of marijuana extract – come in packages that look like candy. Katy Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy are well-known vapers, and the devices show up regularly on YouTube and in music videos. It’s a phenomenon tailor-made to catch the attention of teenagers – and it’s working. 

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a survey taken in 2019 showed that one in four high school seniors had vaped in the last month, and the usage rates amongst teenagers had doubled since 2017. Those statistics are troubling, according to Dodi Walters, Clinical Education Specialist at Torrington Community Hospital. 

That’s because vaping can be extremely harmful – and deadly. 

“You see people with COPD or emphysema walking around, carrying their oxygen tank because they cannot get a deep breath,” Walters said. “We are going to have children walking around carrying their oxygen tanks because they can’t get a deep breath because they have irreversibly scarred their lungs.” 

Just before the Torrington City Council rendered its final unanimous vote to ban the sale of tobacco and vaping products to residents under 21 years old on March 3, Walters spoke to the TCC about the dangers of vaping and how the products are marketed to kids and teenagers. 

There have been 68 deaths nationwide related to vaping since 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and of all patients with serious vaping-related illnesses, 15% of the victims were under 18, and 39% were aged 18-24. The CDC reported that as of Feb. 20, there have been 2,807 cases from all 50 states. 

The youngest vaping death was a 15-year-old from Texas. 

It’s an epidemic, and the best defense against it right now, Walters said, is to have difficult conversations with kids. 

“We need to talk to our kids,” she said. “This needs to be about a fifth-grade conversation, and that makes my heart hurt a little bit. They’re being exposed to it the minute they step into a middle school.”

A serious issue

During the same Torrington City Council meeting on March 3, Torrington High School Principal Chase Christensen arrived with the intent to speak in favor of the ordinance to ban the sale of vape products to individuals under 21. 

The motion passed with no debate, so he held his peace. But vapes have become so commonplace he’s had to install vape detectors in student bathrooms. 

“I have seen vaping as an issue in the high school,” Christensen said. “It hasn’t seemed to be a big issue, and if you looked at discipline numbers it doesn’t look that way, but I think a lot of that revolves around the number of students who are being caught by teachers. 

“We had one in the parking lot the other day that was using vape.”

The bathroom vape detectors have been useful, Christensen said, but he fears they haven’t curved vape usage – students have just found somewhere else to go. 

“Those have been fairly effective,” he said. “We had two or three quick hits in the bathrooms of students vaping, and then you heard chatter in the hallway constantly about the fact that they were in there. Since then, it’s been once every two or three weeks that we get a hit. I think it has moved out of the bathrooms and gone elsewhere.”

While Torrington hasn’t had a vape-related death, the threat is definitely there. 

Adult vape users can experience the same negative consequences, but they’re more likely in younger users because the brain and body haven’t fully developed. Walters said nicotine and marijuana can wreak havoc in a brain that hasn’t fully formed. 

“The rapid growth in the brain continues until they’re 20,” Walters said. “Marijuana and nicotine use can affect their natural brain cells in very key areas. Most of an adult’s brain activity comes from the frontal lobe. That’s the thinking, reasoning and planning part. Most of the teen brain is focused in the middle section. That is the pleasure and reward center. That can be very beneficial because it encourages them to do things like eat, sleep and make friends. 

“When you think about what that nicotine is doing to these kid’s brains, I explain it as it’s like what termites do. They get in there and they make little tunnels. They eat, they poop and they make a mess of what they’re working on. This is exactly what nicotine does to our kids’ brains.”

And the strength of the e-juices amplifies the risk. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, a single JUUL pod – which contains the e-juice for one of the most popular vape devices, the JUUL, which looks like a jump drive and charges in a USB port – contains the same amount of nicotine as 41 cigarettes. Another brand, Suorin, contains the same amount of nicotine as 90 cigarettes. When the devices are used constantly, as is often the case in teenagers, that’s a potentially deadly amount. 

The CDC created a new category to label vape-related illnesses: e-cigarette or vaping associated lung injury. And what’s scariest, Walter said, is the CDC hasn’t been able to figure what substance in the e-juice is causing the illnesses. 

“The CDC and the FDA have not been able to identify what substance in the vape pod is making people sick, so they don’t know which one it is, and it’s more than likely because the labels on the products have very insufficient information,” she said. 

One of the more well-known diseases that can be cause by vaping is popcorn lung, which Walters said causes the small airways in the lungs to become irreversibly scarred and constricted.

“It impairs breathing,” she said. “The compound that does this is found in almost all e-liquid flavoring.

“The other thing that it does to our kids’ bodies and brains is that it causes trouble breathing and damage to their lungs. It causes them to have increased acid reflux, and they live in a continual fight or flight response. That is why they are always feeling the need to run or do something very active.”

There are problems with the devices themselves, as well. Walters said there are numerous cases of vape pens exploding – even while they’re being used. 

“That is something we can make aesthetically better, but we can’t physically fix that type of bone loss,” she said. “It’s almost irreparable.”

Up to the parents and teachers

As vape devices are more and more visible in pop culture, in music videos and in the hands of celebrities, the uphill battle faced by parents and teachers to persuade their children to avoid the products gets steeper. 

Goshen County School District No. 1 Superintendent Ryan Kramer said high schools aren’t the only institutions fighting the battle against vaping. 

“The concern that I have is the number of students that we see in middle school and even in the lower elementary,” he said. “They’re mimicking behaviors of our older students. Nationwide, it’s an epidemic. How do we address it by educating students? It was so new.

“I think we’re starting to see a positive view from high school students in regards to this being a negative activity, and we’re starting to do that in the same way we did when we found out about cigarettes. 

“Once we had the data to support the arguments, we saw a significant reduction in student use. I’m hoping that we’ll see that same thing. It’s a dangerous habit to develop and we know what can happen.”

It’s no secret the devices are marketed toward kids and teenagers, Walters said. The e-liquids come in fruity flavors and they look like candy. One company, Candy King, packages its products in recognizable color and design schemes from popular candies like Sour Patch Kids and Bubbalicious gum. The FDA took action against Candy King and other brands in 2018 and removed some brands from the market due to their similarities to popular candies. 

They were allowed to sell their remaining stock though, Walters said, and the new packaging is minimally different. 

“You need to know about it if you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, anybody in your life,” she said. “It probably scares me the most of all of the things that have come in front of our kids. 

“These are being marketed to our kids, and they’re being marketed to kids in about fifth grade.” 

Walters said it’s going to be up to parents to lead the charge against the industry. Tobacco and vape lobbyists pay millions of dollars to members of the United States Congress, according to opensecrets.org – including Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who the watchdog website says took $16,500 from the industry. 

“We need to be vocal and active about this because it’s the only way the FDA will start to regulate any of this,” Walters said. “The problem they’re having is that the e-cig industry puts a lot of money into funding political campaigns. Unless we start taking action as country, nothing will get done. Nothing will change.” 

She also warned that parents need to be vigilant. Vape devices can be shaped like almost anything, Walters said, and can even function as a toy or gadget. 

“If they come home with a new device or a new toy or something that you did not purchase for them, we need to be looking at those,” she said. “They’re getting very tricky with what they look like and most of them function as the device they’re trying to portray.”

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, an estimated 4.1 million high school students and 1.2 middle school students currently use vapes or e-cigarettes. It’s an uphill battle, Walters said, but prevention has to start at home. 

“It has to start in our homes,” Walters said. “We have to teach our children what they’re up against and show them the pictures. We have to use the right words.”