Vaping becoming an issue in South Lake Tahoe schools

South Tahoe High's Principal Chad Houck made a phone call to parents last week, warning them of the increased use (and subsequent detection) among teens of what is known as "vaping."

Vaping is to "inhale and exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device." The devices are vaporizers, and what goes inside them became popular as a way to cut back on smoking cigarettes starting in 2007, but a 2014 Science News study showed that vaping did not boost quit rates.

The vaporizer pen or vape pen (a type of e-cigarette) range in size from a standard pen to a large cigar that one can use to inhale heated propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin (the main ingredients in the E-liquid) and blow out the vapor. The pens come in a wide range of prices, commonly found from $30 to over $200.

Unlike true cigarettes, electronic cigarettes don’t burn tobacco. They don’t burn anything. Instead, the battery-operated devices turn a flavored liquid into a vapor. Users inhale, or vape, the mist. The liquid usually contains nicotine, the natural stimulant in tobacco that is highly addictive. Also in the liquid are solvents, flavorings and other ingredients that vary between products. Marijuana honey oil can also be used inside the pens.

The purchase and possession of vape pens and the juice that goes in them is illegal for people under the age of 18.

Not only is the action of vaping a danger at school, so are the actual vape pens. Recently, smoke was detected coming out of a South Tahoe High student's backpack and found it to be a faulty battery on a vape pen and contents of the backpack caught on fire.

According to teachers at the high school, students can have a vape pen inside their coat and take a puff during class without any smell being detected.

As South Tahoe Now reported a year ago, there are dangers to vaping and use among teenagers is on the rise nationwide. Pat Harnett, STHS Assistant Principal, gives a copy of that report to the students caught with the vape pens and juice on campus. With the perception that the vape pens and their contents cause no harm, Harnett wants to inform the students of what they're putting into their bodies.

But, this isn't just a South Lake Tahoe problem.

Science Digest, July 2015: E-cigarettes have become the fashionable new electronic toy. With vape flavorings like bubble gum, Dr Pepper and cotton candy, teens have been taking the bait. In 2014, e-cigarettes surpassed cigarettes as the most commonly used tobacco product by middle school and high school students, according to an annual U.S. survey. Teens’ fascination with this nicotine-dispensing smoking alternative worries physicians and toxicologists. Data from a growing number of studies indicate that electronic cigarettes are far from harmless. They also pose their own addiction risk.

In 2014, 2.4 million students reported using e-cigarettes. There were 3,783 calls were made to poison control involving exposures to e-cig devices and nicotine liquids (up from 271 calls just two years prior).

A survey of U.S. teens in 2014 found that almost 9 percent of eighth graders had vaped in the 30 days before they were questioned. Among 10th-graders, 16.2 percent had vaped in the previous 30 days versus 7.2 percent who had smoked. Teens don’t see e-cigs as dangerous, suggest the data from a University of Michigan study, released last December. Only 14.2 percent of 12th-graders surveyed viewed vaping as harmful.

In some parts of the country, e-cigarette use by young people is especially high. In Hawaii, 29 percent of more than 1,900 ninth- and 10th-grade students in five schools had at some time used e-cigarettes, according to a survey published in Pediatrics in January.

South Tahoe Middle School administration has also been seeing an increase in the number of vape pens being confiscated at the school.

When caught with a vape pen on both local campuses, the item is confiscated and not returned, just like a pack of cigarettes or any other banned substance.

The e-cigarette business is a growing one, as is evident with the number of stores in South Lake Tahoe that now sell the vape items. In January of 2014 there were at least 466 different brands of e-cigarettes and 7,764 uniquely named flavored e-liquids, and industry watchers say hundreds more are entering the market monthly. Scientists say it is impossible for them to study every brand for contents, and what affect it may have on both teens and adults.