Suffolk County making push to snuff out e-cigarettes in schools
Samples of vaping devices and flavorings for the e-cigarettes. Credit: Randee Daddona
Suffolk plans to partner with four school districts — using tools such as peer-to-peer counseling and parent forums — to stem the rising use of electronic cigarettes among young people, County Executive Steve Bellone said Tuesday.
The pilot program "Vape Out" is a vaping prevention program to support school systems as they deal with students using e-cigarettes. Only those age 21 and over on Long Island can legally use e-cigarettes.
“The popularity of electronic cigarettes has exploded into mainstream culture to the point where school officials in Suffolk County have asked our public health officials for clarity and assistance in dealing with record numbers of students who are vaping on school grounds,” Bellone said.
The program will be piloted in the North Babylon, Hampton Bays, Port Jefferson and Bayport-Blue Point school districts. It is being funded through existing staff resources, the county said, at no cost to the schools.
The Suffolk County Department of Health Services staff worked with the schools to develop the program and will be at ongoing meetings as well. The first meeting will be Jan. 30.
E-cigarettes allow inhalation of an aerosol that usually contains the addictive drug nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals. While the battery-operated devices can resemble traditional tobacco cigarettes or cigars, many look like common items carried by students, such as pens or USB flash drives, which is particularly troublesome for school officials. Health officials have warned of the impact on young users who are attracted to the flavored nicotine sold in varieties such as cotton candy and fruit flavors.
A state Health Department survey released in March 2017 showed that use of “electronic nicotine delivery systems” among those of high school age nearly doubled from 2014 through 2016 — even as the number of tobacco cigarette smokers in that populace dropped 84 percent from 2000 through 2016.
Vape Out will take a three-pronged approach to prevention: peer-to-peer education, an alternative-to-suspension enforcement program, and a community-parent education forum.
In the Teens-Teaching-Teens Peer Education Program, about 30 student volunteers will spend a day learning about vaping and how to talk to younger students about the dangers of vaping. The Alternative-to-Suspension Program encourages school administrators to require students who have been reprimanded for vaping to attend a customized education intervention in lieu of suspension.
The third part of Vape Out is community education, with Suffolk health department educators continuing their parent forums.
Glen Eschbach, superintendent of the North Babylon school district, said educators noticed an increase in e-cigarette use among their students this academic year, both in high schools and middle schools, and contacted the health department for help. North Babylon is the first district to implement the program.
The district, aided by the health department, will train 30 teens to be peer educators. School officials also have altered the penalties for students caught with e-cigarette devices. Previously, they faced a five-day out-of-school suspension, but now will serve an in-school suspension, where they will learn the dangers of vaping and what it does to their bodies.
“Young kids see it as healthy — they are not getting the tar in their lungs [like tobacco cigarettes]," Eschbach said. “But there are many other toxins going into their bodies."
There are also no long-term studies available yet on the affects of vaping, he said.
In recent years, lawmakers in Suffolk and Nassau counties have enacted legislation restricting the sale of the devices to those under 21 and have taken other steps to prohibit the use of e-cigarettes among students.
Officials in the e-cigarette industry say their mission is to provide adults with an alternative to traditional cigarettes. Juul Labs, for example, stated on its website that it has taken several steps to combat youth use, including a pledge of $30 million over the next three years for research, youth and parent education, community engagement and a restrictive sales system.
The commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has threatened to pull e-cigarettes and vape pens off store shelves unless there is a decline in youth use, according to media reports.
Joie Tyrrell is a Long Island native and covers education for Newsday, where she has worked since 1998.
