RESEARCH BLOG #8: CASE

The Ecological Model has provided useful information to health promotion researchers and practitioners working with community groups and colleges to reduce and regulate student vaping on campus. In order to evaluate reasonable and helpful vaping interventions, it is crucial to examine current smoking policies and deliver accurate messages to the public about vaping. Intervening includes policy development and assisting communities and organizations to include vaping in no tobacco use policies on campus. If we are able to regulate student vaping on campus, we are also able to limit the overall usage of vaping. 

The problem with vaping is that students do not see the seriousness of the dangers and addiction associated with constant e-cigarette usage. This was the same mentality student, Simah Herman, felt as she was put on life support because she was unable to breathe. Simah was a freshman and on the dance team at her college. She noted, “ “I didn’t think of myself as a smoker. Like, it’s just a different kind of smoke,” “The vaping just makes it seem like nothing. Like you’re doing nothing wrong” (Hawkins). The act of vaping at first seems like you are not actually smoking something dangerous, which can be extremely misleading to students. She was rushed to the hospital as she had a hard time breathing in the car and when doctors looked at her chest x-ray, they saw white hazy areas at the bottom of her lung which could suggest pneumonia. However, after 48 hours, her chest x-rays showed that her lungs appeared white, inflamed, and filled with fluid. Since doctors are still learning about what exactly is going on in the lungs, they noted that they can at least declare that an extreme inflammatory reaction to the components of the vape products is occurring. After not being able to breathe for two days, Simah was put on a ventilator and then afterwards, in a medically induced coma. The first thing she asked for as a method of communicating was a pen and paper, where she wrote “I want to start a no vaping campaign,” as she knew vaping has led to her severe illness. Simah had admitted that she started vaping at the age 15, which means she was in high school, and buying e-liquid cartridges from a smoke shop was very easy because she would just lie about her age. The accessibility allowed her to purchase JUUL pods without having to show any sort of identification, which can be seen as a very dangerous outlet. Simah was a healthy student, but her vaping addiction increased as time went on as she was vaping a nicotine cartridge a day, which can be seen as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Eventually vaping e-cigarettes turned into vaping cannabis as well, which can be even more dangerous since students tend to buy these products from bootleg services and there is no definiteness of what chemicals can be in these products. After the addiction had been going on for two years, Simah felt sick, dizzy, and nauseous all the time and she stopped attending classes. She went to a couple doctors and explained that she did vape, but no doctor had ever told her that maybe she should stop vaping(Hawkins). The addiction and Simah’s unawareness of the dangers of vaping had led her to an intense situation, where she was fighting for her life and doctors were not easily able to recognize her problem from the beginning. The doctors and Simah herself most likely did not recognize the seriousness of vaping initially until her condition became worse. Can it be that the social norm of smoking has become an act that does not have enough research to support the dangers for society to stop smoking? 

Simah had the right idea when she mentioned that she wanted to start a no vaping campaign as she understood firsthand the dangers of vaping and what consistent usage can do to one’s body. Limiting the exposure and usage of e-cigarettes is useful because less students will be inclined to try this new trend and eventually become addicted to smoking. A start to intervention is by surveying students on campus and getting a better idea of who smokes and why, when, where, and how often they smoke. Each college campus environment and population tends to be different so maybe some strategies work better for a bigger campus compared to a smaller one. Next, it is important to get students involved with regulations as students are more likely to listen if another student is relaying such information. If we make the risks more pertinent to the public, it is possible that community members and decision makers will be more understanding of  new recommendations regarding e-cigarette usage and the harm they are associated with. Health promotion practitioners can effectively provide helpful information about health effects of vaping to parents so they can discuss with their children to prevent the trend from continuing onto further generations. As students look up to their parents sometimes as role models, it is necessary that parents are well informed about vaping and how this behavior is dangerous to their child and the entire population. Lastly, since college students have distinguished views on vaping, health promotion researchers should focus on conducting developmental research within the college campus population before even starting any campaign or intervention to guarantee accurate success in moving forward with this issue.