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Rise of vape-related illnesses causes concern for Auburn community

A fall 2018 study revealed that 17.7% of Auburn students were vaping an electronic device and not planning to give it up in the next six months.

The vaping industry has been under scrutiny the past few weeks in the wake of recent vaping-related deaths and illnesses.

The Center for Disease Control published a report last Friday stating that as of Sept. 6, more than 450 people have been diagnosed with vaping-related lung illnesses — illnesses that have claimed at least five lives. This followed the CDC’s Aug. 30 warning that e-cigarettes might have negative health effects.

Shelby Flores, Auburn University’s coordinator of alcohol and drug prevention, said it is difficult to pinpoint the direct cause of these ailments. She said vaping liquids can contain expected substances, such as flavoring and nicotine, but also less-known ingredients, such as formaldehyde or metals.

“Up until the past month, there really hasn’t been hard and fast medical research that’s said, ‘Vaping isn’t good — stop,’” Flores said. “But it’s definitely emerging.”

Flores said a fall 2018 study revealed that 17.7% of Auburn students were vaping an electronic device and not planning to give it up in the next six months.

The same study also showed, though, that 46% of Auburn students had never vaped.

Michelle Patten, third-year Auburn pharmacy student, first arrived on Auburn’s campus in fall 2013. She said in 2013, there was a stigma around electronic cigarettes, and vaping wasn’t very common.

“Electronic cigarettes were considered lame and uncool,” Patten said. “You’d see like one person with one. Now, they’re everywhere.”

Patten said she believes that the amount of nicotine provided — and the convenience of modern vaping devices, such as the Juul — has sparked the sudden rush to vaping. 

She said traditional smoking is hard to hide, but the water-vapor based vaping trend leaves little smell and doesn’t demand the vaper go outside.

“Juuls are tiny, the size of flash drives,” Patten said. “You’re able to conceal it, and you’re getting a high amount of the drug or stimulant.”

Patten said that smoking is a risk factor for nearly every disease she has learned about in pharmacy school. 

Flores said that while vaping doesn’t have the tar traditional cigarettes do, a danger in vaping technology lies in that it’s still fairly unregulated, particularly with the quickly increasing number of people who vape juices that contain cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). 

She said these substances are not currently closely being monitored by the FDA.

“It’s hard to know what exactly is in the liquids that you’re using,” Flores said. “We don’t necessarily know the long-term impacts.”

Stephen Bradford, owner of local tobacco shops Da’ Gallery and Hippie Street, said that in the past few years he’s been selling vaping products, he has not had one customer report a related health issue. Rather, he’s seen the products help people quit traditional smoking.

Bradford said many customers and several of his own employees have moved from traditional cigarettes to the Juul, from the Juul to devices with lower nicotine percentages and then from those devices to no nicotine at all. He estimated the progression to take an average of six months.

“If you’re actively trying to get off smoking, that’s definitely the way to step down and get off of it,” Bradford said. “Not just trying it cold-turkey off cigarettes.”

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Bradford said that with vaping he sees two groups of people come into his stores: those trying to quit smoking and those enjoying a vaping fad. 

“If you treat it properly, it can be a medical assistant kind of thing,” Bradford said. “If you’re doing it for the right reasons and not because it’s the fad thing.”

Bradford said that many fad vapers who visit his stores are discovering that juices with lower nicotine percentages have a more pleasant taste.

“We see some of those people coming back and asking for 0-nic stuff,” Bradford said.

Bradford said since the recent vaping-related illnesses in the media, his stores have experienced at least a 25% drop in Juul product sales, and Juul as a company is looking at potential device shifts.

“They’re trying to go to a less expensive pod system and step their juices down to a lower percentage of nicotine than their 5%,” Bradford said. “Which is the proper thing to do.”

Bradford said customers, too, are looking for lower-nicotine and cheaper vaping options. 

His 21-and-older customer base is turning more and more toward smoking, vaping and ingesting CBD products.

“CBD balances your body all out and makes you not want to have some of those other things, like nicotine, in your body anymore,” Bradford said. “So that’s really where things are shifting to.”

Bradford does not believe that marketing for vaping products targets youth as much as many claim. 

“Adults like flavors, too,” Bradford said. “It’s not just kids. Stop taking things away from adults because you think kids are buying it. Stop the kids from buying it.”

Bradford said stores that sell vaping products play an important role in preventing kids from purchasing the devices. 

He emphasized the responsibility stores have to check identification and ensure underage users aren’t walking out with products.

Flores said she asks students she meets with if they vape. If they do, their response is often reluctant.

“They’ll say, ‘Yeah, but I really want to stop.’ or ‘Yeah, but I know I should stop,’” Flores said. “But nicotine is addictive, and they’ve developed a sort of reliance on it.”

Flores said many students tie vaping to stress or anxiety relief. 

Students tell her they needed to find a way to temporarily relax, and nicotine gives them that.

Patten said nicotine activates dopamine receptors in the brain, leaving users feeling rewarded.

“It tells your body it’s happy, and people want more and more of it,” Patten said. “But it’s actually bad for your body.”

Flores said a great deal of her work is centered around finding the root causes of issues. She said nicotine may provide an instant relief, but it fails to address the root causes of student stress.

Flores pointed to areas such as academics, managing a social life, acquiring an internship and others as some stressors that might lead students to nicotine.

“Auburn students are involved in five different organizations and the leader of two of them,” Flores said. “They’re balancing a major and minor and trying to do all these things thinking they should be able to do that effortlessly.”

Flores called this a false narrative.

“I think that there’s broader conversations around the sort of culture we have as a university,” Flores said. “And how we can make it okay to achieve and strive while taking it easy on yourself.”


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