Vaping or the use of electronic cigarettes is described as the new adolescent epidemic. That’s the title of a new brief from UT Tyler’s Hibbs Institute for Business and Economic Research. Hibbs Institute Senior Analyst Manuel Reyes says the problem started with misleading promotion of e-cigarettes and has only gotten worse.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. It’s described as the new adolescent epidemic: vaping and electronic cigarettes. That’s actually the title of a new brief from UT Tyler’s Hibbs Institute for Business and Economic Research, Hibbs Senior Analyst Manuel Reyes is our guest. Welcome.
Manuel Reyes: Thank you so much.
Mike Landess: Good to have you back again. Vaping is illegal on school campuses. It’s illegal for people who are under 18. Stores aren’t supposed to be selling the minors. Where are they getting these things?
Manuel Reyes: The laws are changing, and it also depends from state to state, but the important thing is that more and more adolescents are using e-cigarettes, a huge surge in these past 4 or 5 years.
Mike Landess: We’re talking about middle schoolers and high schoolers, right?
Manuel Reyes: Yes. Yeah.
Mike Landess: Now in this situation, we have e-cigarette manufacturers that have been called out by Congress and the courts from marketing products toward kids. It was last September that one of the largest e-cigarette manufacturers, Jule, agreed to a $440 million settlement with 33 states. And Texas was one of those. We got $43 million of that in January. You think that money is going to be used to try and slow down the use among kids?
Manuel Reyes: Hopefully, because we definitely need it. I think the original problem was when the electronic cigarette was promoted as a healthy alternative.
Mike Landess: To replace regular cigarettes, tobacco products?
Manuel Reyes: Yes. And, and they didn’t know how harmful can this be. And there was a lot of people using it to stop smoking because it has some nicotine, you can put nicotine in there. So it works like the patches or the gum with nicotine to reduce smoking. But a lot of people got into it not necessarily to replace regular cigarettes.
Mike Landess: There’s also an addictive aspect of that too. I mean that’s something that here you were supposed to be getting rid of one addiction and some people picked up, which is the e-cigarettes or both, even worse.
Manuel Reyes: Yes.
Mike Landess: Well, kids and cigarettes. I’m in my seventh decade, and I will tell you that as a kid, I mean swiping cigarettes out of mom’s purse and going out on the back porch or behind the garage or whatever, that was just a thing. It was a way to look like a big kid. So it is almost like a phase, but this sounds like a phase that has reached a point where it’s deadly.
Manuel Reyes: Yes, absolutely. The proportion of nicotine into the electronic cigarette can be even higher than regular cigarettes. And two, it’s very hard to notice someone who is smoking an electronic cigarette, as you said. During the high school years, you hide in the porch. You use cigarettes, but the smell is very hard to hide. It’s getting into your hair. It is very hard to hide it. Electronic cigarettes do not smell, and the companies are making it even more attractive because they’re flavored. They have nice flavors like, I don’t know, vanilla or even popcorn taste. It tastes good.
Mike Landess: What was the conclusion that your study drew from all of this in terms of where we go next? I mean, you’re establishing a problem. You’re using data from the CDC and from all over the country and a variety of different sources. So you’ve established that there’s a problem. What’s the solution, do you suppose?
Manuel Reyes: Well, I think the key thing is information. I think that a lot of people, they were just using it because they thought it was healthy, it was good. There’s nothing bad about using it. We were not very well informed at the beginning, so a lot of people jumped into it thinking it was not harmful. Something not relevant to your health. But now with more research, we found that there is severe damage to your lungs and your system, and as we described in the Hibbs Brief, there are many different consequences that you may have when you smoke electronic cigarettes. I think the key is information. I think that we really need to be informed about how bad this could be, and I think that’s gonna be helpful to substantially reduce the consumption.
Mike Landess: The parental information here seems to be what’s lacking. Perhaps parents are just not aware of, or they dismiss the stories of, “cottage-cheese lung.” They’ve vaped for years on end, and then suddenly you see what the damage has done to them internally. How do you think we’re going to reach parents, so they’ll get tougher with their kids?
Manuel Reyes: Well, in bulletins like the Hibbs Brief and just sharing information. I know some parents here in Tyler that were not aware how harmful they can be to their kids, and they allow it because they think it’s fine. They think, “I’d rather have my kids smoking an electronic cigarette than regular cigarettes. That’s good, because I don’t want them to get into regular cigarettes.” But it’s not, it’s also harmful and they don’t know. That’s why they allow it.
Mike Landess: And, it is addictive and it does have a higher level of nicotine in many cases.
Manuel Reyes: Yes.
Mike Landess: Well, the other aspect of this, too, is there are marijuana products that end up in those those e-cigarettes as well.
Manuel Reyes: That’s also the case. I share here in the Brief relevant numbers in regards to East Texas.
Mike Landess: Do you have specific numbers as they relate to the, the usage of e-cigarettes in east Texas?
Manuel Reyes: Yes.
Mike Landess: Can you, share some of the high points of that? Maybe perhaps some particular factoid that people might be surprised at?
Manuel Reyes: Interestingly, females are smoking more than males. Whites are smoking more than African-Americans. And students who live with their parents are less prone to smoke than those who do not.
Mike Landess: As you move forward with your report, what kind of feedback are you thinking you might get from this in terms of local health agencies, schools and that sort of thing?
Manuel Reyes: Well, I already have received emails like, “Hey, do you know what’s been done about this?” I have had emails from different individuals here in the community who have been contacted by local independent school districts. So I guess my goal is to share information that we can all know, and I think that, in the case of this specific problem, information is key.
So I think that the fact more and more people are getting informed is good. And I’m reaching my goal. How to prevent the use or how to move this forward is something that I cannot do. I only do numbers and data and information and try to have people informed. If this piece is getting in the right hands, I’m sure that they will try to get some action.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been Manuel Reyes, senior research analyst for UT Tyler’s Hibbs Institute. You can find a link to more information on this latest brief on our website, KVUT.org.
I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
