Prevention Notes

Tobacc o Prevention Notes

It’s that time of year again! As the new school year approaches and everyone works to get set during this new normal, parents and caregivers start thinking about preparing their children for the upcoming year.

For parents of middle schoolers and teens, how to keep kids from using tobacco and nicotine products might not seem as serious as other issues. In fact, some parents may feel that smoking or other tobacco use is a “rite of passage” and that kids who start will outgrow the behavior as they get older. However, once teens start using tobacco and nicotine in any form, including vaping products, they can quickly become addicted, and that addiction can lead to a lifetime of serious health problems.

Tobacco companies know this all too much which is why they market as much as they do at the point of sale. Since tobacco companies can no longer market their products on television, they spend most of their money marketing at the point of sale. They use candy-like flavors and bright colored packaging to catch kids’ attention and try to have their products displayed at eye level of their potential customers.

Unfortunately, electronic cigarettes or vapes are not held to the same restrictions as traditional tobacco products that are restricted by the Master Settlement Agreement. Currently, they have few restrictions allowing them to market their products on television. The prevalence of social media in today’s society is another major advertising tool for the tobacco companies. However, this does not mean vaping products are any safer than other tobacco products.

With so many high-risk activities available in today’s culture, parenting adolescents can sometimes feel overwhelming. However, the risks associated with smoking, vaping, or with other tobacco use that often leads to smoking are just as overwhelming. Despite decades of health warnings, 38 million Americans still smoke cigarettes today.

More than 16 million Americans currently live with a smoking-related disease. Tobacco use continues to be the leading cause of preventable disease and death, contributing 480,000 deaths per year in the United States.

Finally, parents should be aware of the impact that electronic cigarettes can have on a person’s health, especially kids since electronic cigarettes are now the most used tobacco product among Montana youth.

According to the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 56 percent of high school students and 31 percent of middle school students in Roosevelt County had ever tried using electronic cigarettes. Also, 36 percent of high school students and 21 percent of middle school students used vaping products in the past 30 days. To help keep your children from starting to use tobacco or vaping products, some important steps you can take include:

•Talk with your children about how addictive and dangerous tobacco use and vaping can be.

•Make your home and your vehicles tobacco-free for everyone, friends and guests as well as family members.

•Tell your children you expect them to be tobacco free.

•Ask your child’s doctor to discuss health issues caused by tobacco use including nicotine addiction and how vaping could potentially affect someone if they were to contract COVID-19.

•Encourage your children to be involved in activities at school, church, or in the community.

•Don’t let your children see movies, TV programming, or video games that show tobacco use.

•Find out where your community stands on policies known to reduce tobacco use by youth, such as schoolbased tobacco bans, smoke free policies, and high prices on tobacco products.

•Set a good example by not using tobacco yourself.

For questions on how to quit tobacco products including electronic cigarettes, contact A.J. Allen, tobacco prevention specialist for Roosevelt County, at 653-6212.