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York Region Public Health is campaigning in an effort to get youth to quit the habit of vaping.
The public health department is launching a new social-media-focused campaign to educate and discourage youth against vaping. It comes as vape usage continues to increase, with Public Health Ontario indicating about one in four high school students currently vape.
Medical officer of health Dr. Barry Pakes said after 50 years of successful public health messaging around cigarettes, vaping is a new problem and a method to get people addicted to nicotine that also has substantial health risks.
“Youth vaping is one of the most significant areas which is going in the wrong direction from a public health perspective,” he said. “This digital campaign we’re launching now is designed to inform them of the risks and provide them with the support needed to quit.”
The campaign involves social media and online resources aimed at educating youth about the risks and issues of vaping. Although vaping lacks the decades of studies of cigarettes, Pakes said there are still negative health effects associated, as well as concern with the health impact it stands to have on developing young minds. Public Health Ontario has said it is associated with increased heart rate and blood pressure, lung disease and chronic bronchitis.
The government of Ontario is also acting on trends with youth vaping. It announced a crackdown on vaping in schools in April, with more enforcement for a ban on vapes in schools and investing $30 million over three years to provide schools with safety infrastructure funding like vape detectors.
The region’s campaign is independent of that and responds to efforts of companies to promote vaping, Pakes said. With cigarette use on the decline, vaping has emerged as an alternative and a way to addict youth he said.
“Once they’ve started, it is very difficult to stop and it does impact brain development right through your youth and into your early 20s,” he said, adding that if the risks were better understood, it could hopefully lead to reconsideration among users.
The campaign includes videos and digital information highlighting facts about vaping and its associated harms.
Pakes said that although vaping is not as harmful as cigarettes, those health risks are still present.
Regional public health will also be campaigning this summer to address the issue of stores selling vapes to youth. Pakes said there is some confusion with retailers not understanding that selling vapes to minors is illegal, and it is more prevalent than say with cigarettes.
“Whether it’s with youth, adults, retailers, parents, vaping is considered far less dangerous and considered more socially acceptable,” Pakes said. “We want to communicate with them over the summer and on an ongoing basis, that is not the case.”
You can find information at york.ca/VapeFacts.
