Within the past decade, cigarette smoking has reached an all-time low among teenagers. While it seems that numerous health and wellness professionals have successfully persuaded underclassmen of the dangers of smoking, the frustrating concept is that vaping is now on the rise. With the revolutionization of the e-cigarette, students can now be seen blowing a puff of smoke out of their lips with the help of a thin device.

This device, called a juul, allows gases to quickly dissipate into the air by being converted into vapor. This technique is called “vaping”, and has become a very prevalent issue in Staples High School.
“I have heard a lot of stories about people [vaping] in the bathrooms and frequently. I have also seen teachers yelling at students outside the bathrooms for vaping,” said Evelyn Stevens ’21.

A vaporizer is an electronic device that heats vaping materials, which consist of e-liquids, waxy concentrates that could include tobacco, or dried herbs, and transforms them into vapor. The vapor is inhaled by delivering chemicals into the lungs, which can cross into the capillary beds that are inside your alveoli.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 16% of high school students vaped in 2015, or 2.39 million teens. In comparison, only 1.37 million kids smoked in 2015. There are multiple reasons why vaping has become more popularized than smoking, with one of the main ones being anonymity.
“We notice students vaping a lot less than when we noticed students smoking cigarettes here because vaping is a lot harder to detect. Unless they’re using flavored juuls, it’s very hard to come across.” said Richard Franzis, the assistant principal at Staples High School.

He also added that vaping is becoming a more frequent occurrence in Staples because students can easily enshroud it. “Students will actually charge their juuls in their computers during the day because they look very much like a USB-port. Typically, if kids are going to vape during the day, they try to conceal it, so they’ll vape in the bathroom. Most of the kids aren’t bold enough to do it out in the open, but they will do it in the bathroom where they can conceal it.”

Officer Ned Batlin, a Westport Police officer, thinks that vaporizers generally have a marketing ploy that is meant to appeal to kids.

“More than 85% of e-cigarette users ages 12-17 used flavored e-cigarettes. The flavors are the leading reason for youth to use. More than 9 out of 10 young adult e-cigarette users said they use e-cigarettes flavored to taste like menthol, alcohol, fruit, chocolate, or other sweets. The companies that make the e-cigarettes are targeting you people. The flavors they market are designed to attract the youth. Do I look like someone who needs to smoke a pineapple or fruit punch e-cigarette? That’s the kind of flavors the companies are making,” he says.

Studies have shown that teens are more inclined to vape because it presumably has less health risks. The materials inside an e-cigarette supposedly contain organic compounds, which are much less likely to be exhaled in normal breath. Therefore, they are much easier for the lungs to handle than smoke from a normal cigarette.

Franzis confirms that, “[Vaping] is a significant issue here. I think a lot of kids are using vaping cigarettes or electronic cigarettes who probably wouldn’t turn to tobacco, because they think it’s a ‘healthier’ alternative to smoking. I think they’re being fooled by the fact that it’s bargained as ‘safe’, when in fact it’s more concentrated than regular cigarettes.”

Officer Batlin agrees that vaping is not nearly as safe as it is claimed to be on the market. He too says that the issue of underclassmen vaping is huge, because it’s a gateway. Kids start out vaping because they think it’s cleaner, but then they become addicted to the nicotine. Then they realize that cigarettes are cheaper than e-cigarettes. In Connecticut, the number of kids who used a tobacco product were going down, but they’re now going up because of the e-cigarettes.”

The assumption that vaping is safer than smoking, has also been called into question by scientists at the University of California. In 2015, they conducted a study which seemed to prove that vaping also provided numerous health risks for users.

The scientists advised an experiment in which they replicated the extract from the smoke of e-cigarettes and used it to treat human cells, and then compared those cells to the ones left untreated.

They found that the ones treated with the nicotine-free smoke developed 50 percent more damaged DNA strands and died far sooner than the untreated cells. Further research concluded that the damage in DNA could interrupt the cell’s repair process, increasing the risk of cancer.

With all the negative aspects vaping provides to students and Staples High School as a whole, staff members are undoubtedly trying to convince and incentivize students not to vape. The methods they use vary depending on each circumstance, but they usually include suspension, education programs, and various punishments from the staff.

“Many times what will happen is that we’ll get staff members who will go into the bathrooms here, and then they will bring those kids down to us. We also tell the staff members what to look for in terms of when students are bringing juuls into class, and we sent out pictures of juuls to keep teachers informed,” says Mr. Franzis.

“We’re also in the process right now of coming up with some educational programs here at the high school,” he adds.

“I know Mr. Damico is really invested in educating kids about vaping, and I imagine our health program has been informed to include education about vaping as well. And yes, it is true that it’s illegal for students under 18 to have possession of any smoking products or materials. Could we call the police on them? Yes, I suppose we could, but we often don’t do that unless we catch someone selling them at school.”

In addition to staff members being against the idea of students vaping in high school, many students are also opposed to the fact that their peers continuously vape.

“I overall don’t think that high school students, especially underclassmen, should be vaping, but if juniors and seniors want to do it outside of school, that’s not my issue. But I think no matter who it is, it is completely inappropriate and shocking that they leave class to do it.” said Stevens.
Megan Kleiner ‘21 says, “I think staff members should be hyper aware of this problem. Staff should be taught about what vaping does and more importantly what it looks like so they can spot it. I also believe there should be a harsher punishment for vaping. It’s a problem that I think is only going to continue to grow.”

Mr. Franzis also hopes that staff members can gain control of the issue, but he recognizes that it’s going to be a challenge. “Unfortunately, no matter what we do, kids are always going to try risky things because they think they’re immune to the side effects. However, the simple fact is that they are just as susceptible to the pitfalls as anyone else, and because of that they should be more cautious of their actions and their decision-making.”