WHAT ABOUT E-Cigarettes AND VAPING?

Have you heard of vaping? What do you know? What are you seeing? Where are you getting your information? Presenter: get a good understanding of what the class already knows and adjust the presentation accordingly. On this slide, we want to understand our audience, but also what facts they think they have and where they are getting the information. You can use the answers to skip around in the presentation as well.

What is vaping? E-cigarettes/vapes use a battery to heat up liquid that usually contains nicotine, flavourings, and other additives. Heating this creates an aerosol (this is what people call “vapour”). Users inhale this aerosol into their lungs.

Health risks Brain development Aerosol Addiction Link to tobacco

Brain development Youth and young adults are more at risk than adults for the long-term, long-lasting effects of nicotine. These risks include nicotine addiction, mood disorders, and having a harder time controlling your impulses. Nicotine also changes the way connections in the brain are formed, and can make it harder to pay attention and learn. Note: Even liquids that say “no nicotine” sometimes have nicotine in them!

Aerosol The aerosol from vaping is not harmless. It can contain harmful chemicals, nicotine and heavy metals. This is true even for nicotine-free liquids. Scientists are still trying to understand the long-term risk of e-cigarettes. The products are fairly new, so we can’t know yet!

Addiction Until about age 25, the brain is still growing. Young people’s brains learn more quickly than adult brains. Because addiction is basically your brain learning to use a substance, adolescents can get addicted more easily than adults. The nicotine in e-cigarettes can also prepare the adolescent brain for addiction to other drugs.

Link to tobacco Cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable death and illness in Canada. Some studies show you are more likely to try cigarettes if you vape. Many people who smoke also vape, which increases the health risks from both products.

Was this information different than what you have heard before? Why do you think this is? Hint: where is this information coming from?

Finding reliable information Where do you go for your information? What is “reliable”? Presenter: Discuss with youth where to find valid information: don’t just google questions. Many websites are paid by vaping companies. Show youth a website (google something like “is vaping safe” and go to one of the top sites) if you can and go to the “about us” or find who owns the site. Was it easy to tell? Sometimes the site might even pretend to be a health site! Try to find out who made the site. Look up sites like the world health organization, Health Canada or Alberta Health Services. The information might not be flashy, but it will be right! Why are these organizations more valid? Because they do a lot of research before they decide to tell you something. And they aren’t selling something to you!

Vaping Advertising

What type of vaping ads have you seen. Do they look like these What type of vaping ads have you seen? Do they look like these? Who is the target audience for these ads? What are the images and words in these ads saying? Do you think they are selling something truthful? What about what you just learned about the health harms?

Look familiar? Presenter: Try to guide the following questions…attempt to get the students to come to conclusions themselves. - Notice something about these ads? Compare them to the previous slide. Vaping companies are trying to use the same tactics as tobacco companies used to. What do you know about smoking? Do you think these ads were honest? Does this make you think differently about vaping ads and their truthfulness?

Vaping and “Big Tobacco” Did you know that many vape companies are actually owned by tobacco companies? Presenter: Ask- why might they be interested in owning vaping companies? (Try to get them to come to the conclusion themselves that vaping may lead to smoking, as per the previous slide on the connection between the two). It is also a huge industry in itself.

How would vaping affect you and your goals? Risks: Health Brain development Link to tobacco Addiction Cost: vaping is expensive Activity: How would these impact your life goals? Discuss with the youth: what are your goals? Ask them to write them down. Now ask them to look at the vaping risks again. Will these impact your goals?

Is vaping safer than smoking? Because vape liquids have fewer chemicals, we THINK they are safer. The key word is think. We cannot know for sure because they are such new products. Even if they are safer, this doesn’t mean they are SAFE. It just means that because tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in Canada, many things are safer. Ask students: What have you heard about the safety of these products?

What do you know now. Did you find out anything new What do you know now? Did you find out anything new? Do you feel differently about vaping now? Be honest. Let students have an honest debriefing discussion. Try to resolve any of the points that they make by bringing up a relevant slide.