Today, I continue the series on vaping that we started last week with my interview with Daniel Ament in episode #109. I hope you shared Daniel's episode with your teen (and maybe even gave his information to someone at your school so he could speak to all the students.)

Vaping is ubiquitous in high school and more and more middle schoolers are taking up the habit every single day. Just because you've not seen evidence that your teen vapes or your teen has not admitted it to you, or they've promised you they'll never do it, does not mean that it isn't happening.

This week I'm explaining how the serious risk of lung damage associated with vaping and e-cigarettes didn't end right before COVID when the CDC stopped tracking the EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury) epidemic. Simply put - COVID took the spot light off this other serious risk to public health.

But in fact, there have been thousands upon thousands of cases in the US alone of vaping related lung injury or illness due to vaping, e-cigarettes or dabbing since then. As a matter of fact, there have been two additional double lung transplants for vaping related lung damage.

I'll explain what's going on here and debunk some of the myths that vaping is "healthy" (that your teen may still be hanging onto.)

Next week I’ll be addressing how to help your teen resist starting vaping and how to help them stop.

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Sources, Resources, and Mentions:

Other episodes in the vaping series: 109, 113 and 114

CDC on EVALI

The American Lung Association on EVALI

Yale Medicine on EVALI

Johns Hopkins on vaping and health risks

Leafly on Cannabis regulation for Vitamin E Acetate

USA Today on state investigations into EVALI

NPR-Some people only bought THC vapes at dispensaries

Jackson Allard's double lung transplant

Johns Hopkins research on chemicals in vapes

Cases of EVALI and ICD-10 Code

FDA on EVALI