© 2023 KLCC

KLCC
136 W 8th Ave
Eugene OR 97401
541-463-6000
klcc@klcc.org

Contact Us

FCC Applications
Oregon's Willamette Valley seen from Eugene
NPR for Oregonians
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lane County Teens Vape At Alarming Rate, State Report Reveals

teengirl.jpg
Science News For Students
/

Over a four year timespan, Lane County saw a 250% increase in teenage use of E-cigarettes. Public Health officials say many young people and their parents are misinformed about the dangers of vaping and they want to change that.

The kids know these inhalant devices by many names: hookahs, MODS, vape pens, and Juul—the new E-cigarette that looks like a USB flash drive. They come in enticing flavors like bubble gum and tooty fruity.

Christy Inskip is the Tobacco Prevention Coordinator at Lane County Public Health. She says the unregulated E-cigarette industry markets their products as safe.

“We have been hearing that even parents have been providing them to their children because they don’t know that they’re harmful.”

Inskip says these products contain heavy metals and other carcinogens. She says the plumes exhaled from these devices is not a vapor at all, but aerosol. And they almost always contain nicotine, Inskip says.

“When our youth start using these products, they sometimes will vomit profusely,” says Inskip, “which is actually their body overdosing and rejecting that nicotine.”

Prevention specialists are taking their anti-vaping campaign to public schools and the community at large.

Tiffany joined the KLCC News team in 2007. She studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has worked in a variety of media including television and daily print news. For KLCC, Tiffany reports on health care, social justice and local/regional news. She has won awards from Oregon Associated Press, PRNDI, and Education Writers Association.
Related Content