WATCHUNG – Two New Jersey teenagers are currently hooked up to ventilators due to lung issues related to vaping.
Bruce Ruck, the managing director of the New Jersey Poison Center, also known as the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System (NJPIES), spoke about this and other statistics related to the dangers of vaping in a presentation at a special meeting of the Watchung Board of Education on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
Vaping is a form of smoking nicotine or marijuana, mixed with a cocktail of chemicals, from a battery-powered device. Most of the cases in which lung issues have formed are from users vaping marijuana.
Ruck, a resident of Lakeview Avenue and president of the Watchung Board of Health, said research has now found the other chemicals mixed in with the nicotine can cause cancer.
The majority of vapers are children and young adults, ranging from 12-year-olds to 25-year-olds, Ruck said. The younger group is of the highest concern for health organizations such as NJPIES and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
For the 12 to 15-year-olds, the risk of having lung issues is higher, according to Ruck, especially as this is their first encounter with nicotine.
“These are not children who are smoking cigarettes,” he said.
Another attractive feature is the amount of flavors there are to choose from, such as berry or “Mellow Yellow.”
He said the reason students are able to get away with vaping during class is because the apparatus are so discrete. The Juul, for example, looks like a USB flash drive. There are also devices contained in real, working watches and the drawstrings of a hoodie.
Officials from the CDC are investigating 215 possible cases of severe lung disease connected to vaping. Ruck likened the problem to the brakes failing on 215 cars.
“Would those cars still be on the market?” he asked rhetorically.
Ruck said he does not know if the state should ban vaping entirely, considering the increased danger involving “black market” products.
“That’s much more dangerous than the legal product,” he said.
According to the CDC’s latest study released on Monday, Oct. 28, 86 percent of the lung diseases related to vaping have come via the marijuana-contained vape apparatuses.
Ruck said he believes all vaping involving marijuana should be banned across the country.
“You’ve got to be crazy to be using this stuff at this point because those are the ones that are most often associated with the lung injury,” he said.
There are certain people who vape marijuana for medical reasons, but they are not so common, according to Ruck.
Legal Does Not Mean Safe
Though the risks associated with nicotine vaping are lower, Ruck said, it does not make it any less of a problem.
The biggest downfall is the addiction aspect across the spectrum of users.
“We have the lung disease, we have children who are becoming addicted to nicotine, we have adults who are becoming addicted to nicotine,” said Ruck.
There is also a group of adults who are trying to wean themselves off of cigarettes by vaping.
Ruck said these adults use language to persuade others that they need these nicotine vapes in order to stay on the right path toward quitting.
If these devices are truly working to help adult cigarette smokers to quit, Ruck said, they should be sold by the pharmacies who could better control it, hypothetically.
“If this is a drug to stop smoking, put it in the pharmacy, he said.
Expanding Education
Ruck said he believes many parents are oblivious to the fact that their children are actually inhaling nicotine, marijuana and other chemicals, and need to be more informed.
“Parents view it as only a vapor,” he said. “They don’t realize what’s in some of this stuff.”
School board member Richard Buccarelli asked if there were any programs the administration could use, through NJPIES, to educate students at Valley View Middle School and even Bayberry Elementary School on the subject of vaping.
Ruck said he would be “more than happy” to present something.
He cited as an example a two-day program he conducted last school year with seniors at Watchung Hills Regional High School. Ruck visited their health classes during a section on drugs and abuse, and advised students on what to look out for in college.
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