THE MISERIES OF VAPING ARE ON THE WAY

May 22, 2019

Community Health Advocate, and long-time friend to Cedar Key and its children, Christina Zachry most ably informed an audience of thirty Cedar Key area residents about the perils and miseries of vaping.  The session occurred at the Cedar Key Library at 4 pm on Monday, May 20. 

Zachry brought with her, for all to see closely, e cigarettes and all the paraphernalia that accompany them.

VAPING

According to the Tobacco Free Partnership of Levy County, vaping is the practice of inhaling and exhaling of aerosol, through an e-cigarette.  The aerosol is delivered by heating a liquid. Dangerous chemicals such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, are present in much of the e-cigarette aerosol. Bystanders exposed to e-cigarette aerosol can also absorb its nicotine.   Click here for more information: http://www.tfp-levy.org/resources.html 

VAPING EFFECTS

The effects of vaping are being discovered every day. Be assured, however, addiction to nicotine and lung disease are indisputably on the horizon for smokers.

EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS

Zachry pointed out the alarming increasing number of Americans using e-cigarettes. In the few years from 2010 to 2013, the number has increased from 9.8 percent to 36.5 percent. The United States Surgeon General’s December 2016 reports alarming numbers in high school students. The number of high school students who were current e-cigarette users increased 66 percent from 10.8 percent in 2014 to 18.0 percent in 2016 in Florida. Further complicating the issue is the fact that the nicotine use in the developing adolescent brain nicotine affects teens’ susceptibility to addiction. Brains mature generally between 21 to 25 years old, reported Zachry.

VAPING ATTRACTION

Vaping is made most attractive by its manufacturers. The devices come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, from more bulky “tanks” to sleek “minis” or pens. They come in flavors, such as blueberry, cherry, and hard candy. Often, they are made to resemble candy packaging to entice youngsters. The flavors also help to mask the heavy metals, formaldehyde, and nicotine.

Currently, the Juul dominates the market with sophisticated marketing techniques. They are sold in sleek white boxes that resemble an IPhone package and are charged by a USB port.

CEDAR KEY COMMUNITY SUPPORT

The Cedar Key Police Department’s Chief Virgil Sandlin and Officer Neal Polimeni were in attendance and fully in support of Zachry’s efforts. Cedar Key School Principal Kathy Lawrence shared several experiences in the school with the vaping issue. Two managers from the Jiffy Store on Second Street attended as well and expressed their complete support.

Zachry laments that just as Levy County and United States efforts have finally begun to diminish tobacco use and cigarette smoking in the youth, vaping is dramatically on the rise. She fears a generation to come addicted to vaping and the substances within e cigarettes.

The Tobacco Free Partnership Mission

The mission of the Tobacco Free Partnership of Levy County is to mobilize community partners to establish long-lasting system and policy changes that promote tobacco-free social norms in order to prevent usage of tobacco products by youth/young adults, encourage and support tobacco cessation, eliminate the hazards of secondhand smoke, and decrease the number of deaths due to tobacco products.

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