On September 18, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new campaign to stop teen vaping in high and middle schools. The campaign targets 10.7 million students who have vaped or thought of vaping.

Vaping and vapes were created as a way to help adults quit smoking, but it has taken over schools everywhere. Studies show that teens who vape are more likely to use tobacco products: “Participants who says they vaped e-cigarettes in the first questionnaire, 47.7 percent had started smoking cigarettes 18 months later, compared to 10.2 percent of those who did not use e-cigarettes.” (https://www.futurity.org/vaping-smoking-cigarettes-1634462/)

Junior Matthew Hadzic stated, “Often I will avoid bathrooms because people vape.”

Sophomore Spencer Buckwalter exclaimed, “It’s irritating.”

The FDA will be placing ads on posters in bathrooms of schools and websites. They will also attempted to use geo-fencing to send out messages. Geo-fencing uses radio frequency and GPS to create a virtual fence; this allows for the FDA to send messages in the set areas.

Hadzic responded to the posters, “The people breaking rules will still break them anyway”.

Buckwalter stated “No one listens to a poster.”

The FDA’s commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, claimed that vaping is now a “epidemic”. He has also said that there could be a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, if the five largest manufacturers can’t come up with a plan to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of people younger than 18.

Ads will also appear on apps and social media popular with teens including, Youtube, Pandora, and Instagram. The ads show a snake like creature showing how the chemicals spread through the body. Another shows teens mouths replaced by devices to show how e-cigarettes reprogram the brain. When tested in a focus group the campaign is one of the most effective anti tobacco campaigns ever. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/18/fda-anti-youth-vaping-campaign-e-cigarettes/1336836002/)

The e-cigarette is by far the most used tobacco product by teens. 12% of students in high school and 3% of students in middle school used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days. Student vaping is up 75% and this means that about 20% of people in this age group use e-cigarettes. All tobacco products are raising in sales including normal cigarettes. The FDA is trying to rush the release of this campaign because of this, and that it should be up in the next two months.

In the next 2 month it will be interesting to see what steps will be taken to stop the increasing numbers of people vaping. The FDA plans to put up signs in school bathrooms across the nation and a possible ban on flavors. Now the FDA is trying to get the campaign out as soon as possible.