{"id":95506,"date":"2018-07-02T19:05:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T23:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=95506"},"modified":"2018-07-02T11:17:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T15:17:30","slug":"letter-e-cigarettes-and-vaping-carry-their-own-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=95506","title":{"rendered":"LETTER: E-cigarettes and vaping carry their own risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"LETTER: E-cigarettes and vaping carry their own risks<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the Editor:<\/p>\n

Teenage smoking is at an all-time low nationwide. Dedicated, hardworking health, community, and\u00a0youth advocates have been working hard to protect our children from Big Tobacco and its marketing
\ntactics over the past 25 years.<\/p>\n

Yet kids are still getting addicted to nicotine.<\/p>\n

E-cigarette and vaporizers are now on the market, and their use is increasing. When asked about e-cigarettes and vaping, most people don\u2019t know the health risks. The devices are adjustable, and it is up\u00a0to the user to decide how much fluid is used each time. This makes these devices very dangerous for\u00a0young adults who don\u2019t realize that they contain nicotine. These products are marketed with cartoons\u00a0and have fruity sweet flavors. Just like with other tobacco products, we need to let tobacco companies\u00a0and retailers know that marketing these harmful products to youth is not acceptable. We also need to\u00a0educate everyone on the dangers of these new devices.<\/p>\n

These products, including the JUUL, are showing some very familiar trends. We know:<\/p>\n

1. Nicotine is highly addictive. One pod in the e-cigarette equals one pack of cigarettes in terms of\u00a0the amount of nicotine. Drugs like nicotine, which are highly addictive, change the brain and\u00a0how it works. These changes can lead to many harmful, often self-destructive, behaviors.<\/p>\n

2. Danger to the lungs. There is a danger to the lungs from the chemicals being inhaled when the\u00a0pods are heated up. There are chemicals and heavy metals being inhaled in the vapor.\u00a0Furthermore, e-cigarette \u201csmoke\u201d is harmful to everyone. Many users think that what they are\u00a0inhaling and exhaling is harmless water vapor, but it actually contains chemicals and metals\u00a0that can harm anyone around it.<\/p>\n

3. Nicotine affects brain development in youth. The brain is not fully developed until a person\u00a0reaches 25 years old. Nicotine can prime the brain for addiction to opiates and other drugs. So, if\u00a0a youth is prescribed an opiate for a sports injury or dental procedure, the brain is already more\u00a0likely to be susceptible to addiction.<\/p>\n

The e-cigarette and vaping issue is the same as with traditional tobacco products, just with a new\u00a0delivery system, and we should make sure we include these new devices when talking about tobacco.\u00a0Madison County has taken a proactive approach and has changed a local law so that e-cigarettes,\u00a0vaping, and nicotine dispensing devices cannot be used on county property, including parks. Other\u00a0possible regulatory approaches include enforcement in schools, raising the age of sale for tobacco and\u00a0nicotine products, and expanding product marketing restrictions for tobacco to include e-cigarettes
\nand vaping devices.<\/p>\n

Madison County has community outreach and education programs to help us work towards our goal of\u00a0bettering lives and communities, including BRiDGES, Madison County Council on Alcoholism &\u00a0Substance Abuse, Inc. The County\u2019s Tobacco Prevention Program is a community partnership funded\u00a0by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Tobacco Control. For more information, visit\u00a0madisoncounty.ny.gov\/206\/Health-Department and\u00a0bridgescouncil.org\/.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,
\nKatherine Mungari
\nDirector of Community Health
\nMadison County Department of Health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LETTER: E-cigarettes and vaping carry their own risks To the Editor: Teenage smoking is at an all-time low nationwide. Dedicated, hardworking health, community, and\u00a0youth advocates have been working hard to protect our children from Big Tobacco and its marketing tactics over the past 25 years. Yet kids are still getting addicted to nicotine. E-cigarette and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}