Parents now have another worry to add to bullying, late night texting and overweight kids — vaping.
Lighting up a sweet-tasting liquid and inhaling the vapour has been a popular pastime for some Tri-Cities youth, with accounts of students as young Grade 6 trying e-cigarettes on school property and being disciplined.
E-cigarettes or vaporizers have been on the market for over a decade but authorities are only now trying to get a handle on their use.
Considered by some a valid smoking cessation device and by others a marketing scam for tobacco corporations that have invested millions in these products, e-cigarettes are generating plenty of debate.
E-cigarettes containing nicotine are not legally manufactured, sold or imported in Canada but the devices and e-juice are easy to get on online in a wide range of flavours. E-juice without nicotine is also being sold and devices that heat up the flavoured liquid, many of which look like and mimic cigarettes, are available, even at local tobacco shops.
You can’t sell them to minors, thanks to recent changes to the Tobacco Control Act (and the RCMP will respond to complaints about this made to its non-emergency line). E-cigarettes are also banned from being used around Coquitlam civic facilities and School District 43 has added e-cigarettes to its list of banned objects in its code of conduct.
But will that be enough to keep kids away when celebrities are making them popular and candy-flavoured liquids are enticing them to try?
The Canadian Cancer Society reported last year that one in three high school students have tried vaping, with early middle school being a popular age to experiment.
According to Cindi Seddon, a School District 43 principal, there is a big concern among educators that e-cigs could make smoking acceptable again.
Another problem is that there isn’t enough research on the long-term impact of inhaling propylene or vegetable glycol and what effects second-hand exposure may have. In short, we don’t know for sure if they are as safe as proponents suggest.
For now, it’s up to parents to do the research and talk to their kids — before they experiment.
