The Food and Drug Administration’s first approval of several flavored e-cigarettes is renewing concern among some New Mexico parents and educators who say vaping has created a new risk for young people.

Earlier this month, the FDA approved four new flavored e-cigarettes for the first time, including two that are not tobacco- or menthol-flavored.

Vapes were introduced in the United States in 2007 and advertised as a way to help adult smokers transition away from cigarettes. But Mary Warren, an educator at Walatowa High Charter School at Jemez Pueblo, questioned why companies would make the products more appealing to young people.

“Originally, vapes were touted that they’d be healthier than standard cigarettes,” Warren said. “So why would you make it more attractive for young people?”

Like cigarette manufacturers, vaping companies often use advertising and marketing to portray their products as trendy or harmless accessories. According to the news site Common Dreams, many major vaping manufacturers and tobacco giants gave millions to President Donald Trump’s inauguration and construction of the White House ballroom.

The majority of underage children obtain e-cigarettes through “social sources” rather than buying them directly, meaning they get them from friends, older siblings or adults.

Warren said she took an informal poll of students at her school.

“We have about 30 students here,” she said. “One of them said they didn’t vape, and everyone else does. Yes, it’s very prevalent. Access to vapes is very, very easy.”

Before studies confirmed the harmful effects of cigarettes, 43% of Americans identified as smokers. Almost 60 years later, in 2022, that number had dropped to about 11%.

Warren said that by the time comprehensive research on e-cigarettes is complete, it will be too late for today’s young people.

“By the time many years have passed and the research has been compiled and analyzed, those young folks will have already had any negative effects,” she said.

According to language included in a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Department of Justice against major convenience store chains and distributors, flavored disposable e-cigarettes have become the most commonly used tobacco product among teenagers.

Source: Public News Service