School is back in session, and doctors want parents to teach their kids about the dangers of vaping.
More than 10% of high schoolers in Connecticut and 18% of high schoolers in New York vape, according to the campaign for tobacco-free kids.
Dr. Cedric “Jamie” Rutland is a pulmonary critical care physician and volunteer spokesperson with the American Lung Association. He said kids who vape often come into his office with a persistent cough.
“I'll ask mom, because it's usually mom, to exit the room like, ‘You know, listen, can you leave and I’ll talk to your son?’ Usually, it's the son. And I'm like, what's going on? What are you doing? And the son, 9 times out of 10, says, ‘I'm vaping.’ and I'm like, ‘That's why you have a cough.’”
He said vaping is especially dangerous because it hasn't been around long enough for researchers to understand its full effects.
“Because of the many flavors of vaping, you create a multitude of different molecules. Some of these molecules are carcinogenic, so they cause cancer. We know this,” Rutland said. “The reason that I can't particularly say to you that vaping causes cancer, like I can with smoking, is because we just don't have the years of data.”
Rutland said there isn’t one “sign” that parents should look out for if they think their kid is vaping.
Rather, he said parents should pay attention to who their kids are surrounded by and what they have in their bedrooms.
“My kid lives in my house; the rooms that they sleep in are my rooms,” Rutland said. “So I will go in their room, and I will go through their stuff. And I tell them that I'm going through your stuff. I'm going through your phone — I pay for your phone and the room. I'm going through your backpack, and I'm looking for these things.”
Rutland recommends vaping.org for more information about how to talk to teens about lung health.
