Responding to the Vaping Crisis
Strategies to curtail student e-cigarette use
The rise of e-cigarette use among adolescents requires a coordinated response from school district administrators. Nearly 10% or 2.5 million students used e-cigarettes in 2022 compared to 1.5% in 2011. The U.S. Surgeon General has declared youth e-cigarette use (i.e., vaping) an epidemic. Left unchecked, this epidemic may lead to lifelong nicotine or THC addiction, severe or fatal lung damage, and other serious health consequences.
EAB has profiled districts that implemented prevention and intervention tactics designed to reduce student vaping, aligned with public health expert recommendations. Administrators at these districts incorporate research-backed content and delivery into student-focused prevention campaigns to promote adolescents’ receptiveness of their message.
E-Cigarettes in Schools
Between 2017 and 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented a double-digit increase in use of e-cigarettes among both high school and middle school students. Preliminary data from the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey suggests the percentage of high school students using e-cigarettes increased again between 2018 and 2019. The scientific and medical communities agree that e-cigarettes are not safe for young people and are harmful for any age group.
Impact of vaping on middle and high school students
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Health
Chemicals in ecigarettes can cause seriousand irreversible lung damage.
In mice, inhaled nicotine harms lung development.
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance that alters the adolescent brain.
Behavior
ADHD-like symptoms have been reported.
Some students are unable to remain in the classroom for a full class period or at sports practice for the duration of the practice without vaping.
School climate
Students who do not use e-cigarettes feel frightened to enter the restroom due to exposure to secondhand aerosol from students vaping.
Empty cartridges and batteries from e-cigarettes litter school grounds, requiring costly toxic waste disposal.
Prevention
Contacts at Stanford Medical School explain that adults should engage in conversations about vaping with students consistently throughout their childhood and adolescence. To ensure that vaping education programs deliver accurate information in an approachable way, consider utilizing comprehensive, evidence-based curricula, such as those available for free online: Stanford Medical School’s Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, RMC Health’s Second Chance program, and Truth Initiative’s This is Quitting program.
Experts at Stanford Medical School recommend that administrators deliver curricula multiple times across students’ academic careers. Pre- and post-exposure surveys are employed to evaluate the curricula’s impact on students. Experts report that the curricula improve students’ knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behavior toward tobacco and e-cigarettes.
E-Cigarette Policies
Experts and contacts at Boston Children’s Hospital, District C, and Truth Initiative indicate that punitive measures (e.g., suspension, loss of athletic eligibility) do not encourage students to quit using e-cigarettes. Contacts at all profiled institutions emphasize that the powerful nature of nicotine addiction prevents punitive discipline from successfully addressing vaping use.
To recognize that addicted students may be unable to resist the urge to use e-cigarettes, profiled districts have adapted their discipline policies for students found vaping to incorporate some flexibility.
Administrators can use resources from anti-tobacco/anti-vaping organizations as alternatives to suspension for students’ first or second vaping offense. These resources aim to help students quit vaping, which is a more long-term solution to student vaping than suspension. This approach can support a district’s values of restorative justice (i.e., a solutions-based rather than punishment-based approach to misbehavior).
Intervention
To impactfully reduce student vaping, experts at Boston Children’s Hospital report that students will likely need behavioral counseling to quit using e-cigarettes. Therefore, these experts recommend that administrators deploy counselors trained to conduct motivational interviewing for e-cigarette users and provide behavioral support for students trying to quit.
For districts that lack the funds to hire staff specifically responsible for substance abuse prevention, the American Lung Association offers a comprehensive, evidence-backed motivational interviewing program, INDEPTH. Any staff member can complete free, online training, which prepares them to deliver the program to students.
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