Big tobacco’s target: Children Hook ‘em early

Littlerock – On Tuesday, June 4, 2022, an outstanding a presentation to a room full of parent/child audience, Tarzana Treatment Center opened everyone’s eyes and minds to the serious pervasive threat to youth, especially in middle school level with flavored tobacco and vaping products as well as marijuana effects.

The host was Littlerock High School Community Schools Family Resource Center.

Our brains are still in a developmental stage up to the age of 25. With the use of these products, temporary and permanent damage is done when using tobacco, vape and marijuana in any form. The graphic lists those damages and warns how permanent the damage can be. See also the graphic about how nicotine targets the whole body.

The presentation was named, “What are youth vaping?” followed by “Anything except pure air in your lungs is harmful.”

A short survey was taken as an ice breaker and open our minds on the topic. Try this as you read along:

Do most e-cigarettes contain nicotine?

 Yes

 No

What can an e-cigarette look like?

A. Cigarette

B. Flash drive

C. Pen

D. All of the above

Do E-cigarettes contain many harmful chemicals?

A. True

B. False

The smoke from e-cigarette is water vapor

 True

 False

(The answer was the smoke is an aerosol)

Which are e-cigarette brand names?

 JUUL

 Blu

 Halo

 All of the above

 None of the above

Can some e-cigarette devices be used to smoke cannabis?

A. Yes

B. No

The conversation moved on about how ads were used to draw adults into purchasing products, targeted youth by promoting products in cartoons and movies and promoting e-cigarettes as “healthier”. When in fact, they deliver as much nicotine in the most non-invasive way t addict their customer, introduced flavor that attract young people and try to downplay the harm of these flavors and making use of marketing strategies on social media that are known to attract young people.

A pack of cigarettes has 20 cigarettes which translates to about 20 milligrams of nicotine delivered to the body from a pack of cigarettes. A JUUL pod, as example, delivers twice as much nicotine or 40 cigarettes, PUFF bar delivers 50 and Suorin Vagon cartridge 90 which is over 5 packs of cigarettes a day.

A very long list of chemicals found in these products was listed which was intensely disgusting. As an example, one of those is propylene glycol (antifreeze) and used to winterize plumbing systems is in what is being smoked! One chemical called Rubidium is used to make fireworks’ brilliant colors.

Teens vape by 17% more than adults. Teens who use vape use flavors by 96% more. Teen vaping has increased by 218%, high school students by 135% in the last 2 years. In a single year, vaping cannabis increased by 58%.

It’s a health problem out of control.

Keep your child free of this scourge.

For more information and to schedule a presentation to your school, classroom, organization please contact Stephen Updyke at 661 726-2630 Ext 4115.

By Shirley Harriman