By Keith Whitcomb Jr. Staff Writer
MONTPELIER — A survey that assesses youth behavior shows that 14.4% more Vermont high schoolers used e-cigarettes in 2019 than in 2017.
The 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey was released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the data, in 2017, 12% of Vermont high school students had used an e-cigarette. In 2019, the rate was up to 26.4%. Of those, 40% reported frequent use, meaning they’d used an e-cigarette 20 days out of the month, while 30% reported daily use.
“It’s not surprising, but it is sad and scary,” said Tina Zuk, government relations regional lead for the American Heart Association. “I think we’ve increasingly seen youth turning to e-cigarettes and flavored tobacco products because of the cool-factor or just the lure of flavors. And the tobacco industry just keeps coming up with more products as various ones get taken off the markets.”
The American Heart Association, along with the Vermont chapter of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, have been advocating for a statewide ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products. Their efforts had gained traction with a bill, S.288, which made it through the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare and was sent to the Senate Committee on Finance, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Zuk said she believes the finance committee was scheduled to take testimony on the bill the same day the Legislature paused.
Zuk said she’s not sure whether the bill will progress given what else the Legislature has on its plate in terms of COVID-19 and its damage to the state budget.
“I just don’t see how it could move that quickly because the House never had a chance to take testimony on it, only the Senate did,” she said.
It’s possible the bill will have to be reintroduced, given this is the second year of the biennium, she said.
“I knew it was going to go up given the trends in the schools and everything going on with vaping, but when I heard the number, it was still kind of a shock,” said Zoey Pickel, the Vermont youth ambassador for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Pickel is a 17-year-old homeschool student living in Barre. “I feel like it really is the flavors and the way they’re marketed toward the youth.”
She said she’s learned in webinars that the flavors, combined with the nicotine, make vaping more attractive to youth than traditional cigarettes. She worked at a fast-food restaurant where many of her coworkers were under 21 and vaped. She doesn’t believe youth are switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, but are starting with the latter.
“I think a lot of them are seeing older siblings or family members doing it,” she said.
“It is tragic that in the last two years alone the number of Vermont high school students using e-cigarettes has more than doubled,” stated Kevin O’Flaherty, advocacy director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a release. “The youth e-cigarette epidemic is threatening to reverse decades of progress we’ve made in reducing tobacco use among kids. It’s time for legislators to pass (S. 288) to get these flavored vaping products that are fueling this dramatic increase in youth tobacco use off the market once and for all.”
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