Why have so many Louisiana teens started vaping? This expert says: Ask them.

Louisiana has one of the highest rates of teen vaping in the country.

In 2023, 30% of high school students in Louisiana reported using e-cigarettes in the past month, compared with 17% of high schoolers nationwide, according to state and federal surveys.

Louisiana schools have struggled to deter students from vaping, which some do in bathrooms and hallways.

Young people who vape face health risks and are more likely to start smoking cigarettes. Yet many teens view vaping as safer than smoking and are drawn to e-cigarettes for their flavors, said Mattie Hawkins, a regional manager at the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living, or TFL, which promotes tobacco-control policies.

Hawkins spends her time talking to teens about tobacco and its negative impact on the brain and body. Last month, TFL hosted the “Rise Above Vaping Symposium” at Istrouma High School in Baton Rouge, where students were given a safe space to share their experiences with e-cigarettes.

“Just being around other students, they were able to have honest and open dialogue,” Hawkins said.

The conversations with students have helped Hawkins and her team better understand what draws teens to vaping — and what might convince them to stop.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you hear from young people about why they started vaping?

Some of the main reasons students may start vaping are, of course, curiosity. They may have family and friends who vape, so they could deal with peer pressure or they may just see them and also want to do it.

Our youth also struggle with stress and many different mental health issues, so that’s a reason, too. They may be attracted to the different flavors of vapes, or they might think it looks cool.

Why has vaping become so much more popular with teens than smoking?

When e-cigarettes were created, they were marketed as being safer than cigarettes. But studies have shown that they’re actually not safer.

A pack of 20 cigarettes is equivalent (in nicotine content) to one JUUL pod.

What does vaping look like in school? 

They are easy to sneak in. We’ve heard from principals that kids are just grabbing their parents’ (vapes) and they think it’s OK, they think it’s cool and don’t see it as being harmful.

You have some parents who may actually buy it for their students because they don’t see it as an issue. And then you have older students who are able to purchase vapes from local smoke shops who don’t pay attention to age requirements.

So those kids are able to get them into schools and pass them among each other. Some kids pick them up off the ground, too, which is nasty.

How do you talk to kids about quitting?

I have to let them know, “I’m not condemning you, I’m not judging you, but these are the facts. These are the statistics when it comes to vaping.”

I tell them about the health issues that may affect their body in the long run. 

Can you go into more detail about the problems vapes can cause?

Recent studies have shown that vaping can lead to urinary and bladder cancer for youth.

Kids typically first try tobacco around 13 or 14 years old, and smoking can be detrimental to brain development. The human brain doesn’t stop developing until around 25, and tobacco stunts its growth, so kids often have issues with focusing and memory. They also tend to struggle with anxiety.

How can parents help their kids quit?

The first step in prevention when it comes to family is being open and having those conversations, explaining to youth the dangers of tobacco use.

Once again, not condemning them, but just having that open dialogue where they’re able to tell you something.

What can schools do to combat vaping?

With schools, we have a Live Vape Free tool kit, which is a comprehensive online tool kit for schools to take the lead in responding to the youth vaping epidemic. These kits guide schools in how to create a tobacco-free environment that prevents students from using products like e-cigarettes. It also supports students who need help quitting.

The tool kit encourages schools to lessen the punitive consequences for smoking. Students who are caught vaping face the possibility of being expelled, so the kit offers guides for coaching or hosting sessions to talk about why kids shouldn’t do this. It’s about positive reinforcement.

What was the idea behind the recent anti-vaping event your group hosted at Istrouma High School?

The Rise Above Vaping Symposium was actually a pilot event, so it was our first time hosting it.

We brought together middle school and high school students to educate and create awareness about the harmful effects of vaping.

They had the opportunity to share their personal experiences with vaping, and we had an open discussion where we wanted to understand the factors contributing to the vaping epidemic among youth and develop an actionable, peer-to-peer intervention strategy.