Smoking e-cigarettes, or vaping, has assumed alarming proportions amongst the youth in the country with a large chunk of teenage urban children regularly indulging in the harmful habit.

Worried about this growing trend, which is likely to turn into a major public health issue, a group of teachers and school administrators from various parts of the country recently wrote a letter (on November 14) to Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Education Minister, urging him to the check the “misinformation” that is being spread by tobacco companies who position these products as less harmful in comparison to the traditional cigarettes.

Electronic-cigarettes (e-cigarettes), or vaping devices (‘heat-not-burn’ tobacco products), are banned in India.

According to the signatories of the letter, who call themselves ‘Teachers Against Vaping’, there is an urgent need to protect school children and create mass awareness by launching communication initiatives to spread information about the detrimental effects of e-cigarettes and e-hookahs in all their forms.

Also Read: ‘Zindagi Se Yaari’ promotes awareness on ill-effects of tobacco addiction

The teachers are concerned that the international tobacco corporations, in their search for new markets and target audience, are spreading deceptive information that portrays modern e-cigarettes as either benign or less harmful when compared to traditional cigarette smoking.

What Is An E-cigarette 

E-cigarettes include e-cigs, vapes, e-hookahs, and vape pens. Some e-cigarettes look like regular cigarettes, cigars, or pipes and some look like USB flash drives and pens.

E-cigarettes produce an aerosol by heating a liquid that usually contains nicotine — which is the addictive drug in regular cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products — flavourings, and other chemicals that help to make the aerosol. Users inhale this aerosol into their lungs.

How E-cigarette Works?

A reservoir or cartridge filled with an e-cigarette liquid (or e-liquid) connected to a battery-powered heating metal coil, produces a mix of vapour and fine particles (aerosol), which is then inhaled through a mouthpiece. Most e-liquids contain nicotine, often in high concentrations and flavouring agents.

Bystanders can also breathe in this aerosol when the user exhales into the air.

The e-cigarette aerosol that people use from the device and exhale can contain harmful substances, such as nicotine, ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs, flavouring such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to a serious lung disease, volatile organic compounds, cancer-causing chemicals and heavy metals such as nickel, tin and lead.

What Are The Effects of E-cigarette on Children

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health organisations have identified the use of e-cigarettes among adolescents as a major concern for public health.

It can cause major health issues such as addiction, anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, exposure to cancer causing chemicals, chronic bronchitis and lung damage that can be life threatening.

According to Cancer Research UK, e-cigarettes are not risk-free. They can cause side effects such as throat and mouth irritation, headache, cough and feeling sick. These side effects tend to reduce over time with continued use. It is still not known what effects they might have in the long term.

According to a 2021 study, E-cigarettes and Vaping: A Global Risk for Adolescents, published in Indian Paediatrics, “use of nicotine during adolescence is associated with altered brain development and long-term impairments in memory, attention capacity and executive functioning. Consuming large amounts of nicotine through vaping can lead to nicotine toxicity, which presents with headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, heart palpitations, hand tremors, difficulty concentrating, and in some cases, seizures and cardiac arrhythmia. Nicotine is also a long-term risk factor for poor cardiovascular health.”

Also Read: It’s high time India kicked the butt

Regular nicotine use through vaping can also lead to withdrawal symptoms if adolescents try to quit or are temporarily unable to access vaping products. Withdrawal symptoms can appear after as little as a few weeks of use and can interfere with normal daily functioning

How Should Parents Know Their Child Is Vaping

Firstly ask them about whether they vape or not in a nonjudgmental way so that your child is comfortable enough to discuss it with you. Talk it out and explain to them it is unhealthy. Some signs of vaping include:

• new health issues such as coughing or wheezing
• e-cigarette supplies, like cartridges or other suspicious looking items
• new smells (some flavourings are banned, but others are in nicotine and marijuana vapes — so parents might notice fruity or sweet scents)

What Should Parents Do if their Child Vapes

Always remember that your child needs support and understanding from you to quit. Help them find the motivation to stop vaping and talk about these things with them;

• wanting to be the best, healthiest version of themselves.
• not wanting to be addicted.
• avoiding health effects including impotence and decreased sports performance.
• not wanting to increase anxiety or depression.
• saving money.
• going against advertising that targets young people.

Some people also use vaping to curb their appetite, but there’s no proof that vaping helps with weight loss. If you feel this could be one of the reasons why your child vapes then talk to them about healthier ways to stay healthy and not use vape as a medium.

E-cigarettes are banned in India but are nevertheless widely used in urban centres. A survey conducted by Think Change Forum reveals that 96 per cent of Indian students aged between 14-17 years were not aware that vapes and electronic devices are banned in India, while 89 per cent of them were not aware of their harmful effects.

Titled Ideas for an Addiction-Free India, the survey covered 1,007 students in public schools in six cities across India and found that 52 per cent of those who were not aware of the harmful effects of vaping perceived it as “completely harmless” and viewed it as a fashionable activity.