Aliyya Swaby Photo
Lazlo Sedenszki, a junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, was the only student in the room who admitted to having ever “vaped.” But everyone in the room said they knew someone who had tried it.
Sedenszki sat in the audience of a panel conversation at his school Monday between local students and federal representatives on the risks of e‑cigarette use among teens and how to pass federal legislation to regulate the product.
After a Connecticut study showed that 25 percent of the state’s high school students have tried an e‑cigarette, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (center in photo) and U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro (at left) and Elizabeth Esty (at right) met with student leaders at Metropolitan Business Academy to figure out exactly how e‑cigarette companies are getting to kids and whether their effort is working.
Results from a separate CARE student health survey of 500 middle school students showed that students who vaped enjoyed the variety of flavors and perceived e‑cigs as healthier than tobacco. Eight percent of eighth graders used e‑cigarettes and another 8 percent wanted to try them.
“Do you see kids vaping” in the bathroom? Esty asked students in the room.
“O.K., cover your ears, teachers.”
Some shook their heads.
Keanu Dos, an MBA senior, said his two cousins started vaping after running across Blu e‑cigarettes in a store. “They liked how they lit up in the front, how you can change the flavor of it,” he said. They thought it was “healthier” than cigarettes. “When they tasted it, they obviously felt the nicotine,” Dos said. They had never tried cigarettes before.
Blumenthal compared the current fight against e‑cigarettes to past efforts to prevent tobacco companies from using cartoons like Joe Camel to market to children. “E‑cigarettes are marketed to children who are not smokers right now,” he said. The gateway product makes kids up to 10 times more likely to smoke tobacco.
“How many of you have tried cigarettes?” Blumenthal asked.
Only Sedenszki said he had. He told the Independent that he only occasionally vapes, but has friends who smoke e‑cigs more regularly.
“What are you seeing in movies and TV shows about vaping?” Esty asked. She said she read an article about videos posted to social media of people doing “smoke tricks” while vaping.
One student said he had seen those videos as well as shows with “party scenes” of people smoking e‑cigarettes.
Amy Zheng, a High School in the Community student, said she has received a lot of spam e‑mail from e‑cigarette companies. “It’s the biggest spam I get from anywhere,” she said.
“How many of you are familiar with Twilight?” Blumenthal asked the students. He said the companies used lead actor Robert Pattinson to promote their product, to draw in younger fans of the vampire franchise.
“Do we have any idea of who is mixing the quote unquote juice?” DeLauro asked, referring to the liquid solutions the cigarettes heat and turn into vapor. Sendenszki said some of his friends who vape also mix their own solutions, not all of which contain nicotine. “Are they licensed to do so?” DeLauro responded, prompting laughs from the audience.
Esty said solutions without nicotine can also be dangerous, because studies reveal that formaldehyde is in the canister, which is dangerous when heated and inhaled.
Blumenthal said he is trying to get a bipartisan effort together to regulate vaping. The Food and Drug Administration has been “too timid” and “tepid” so far, instead of demanding “more oversight and scrutiny.”
“We should bring you copies of what kind of legislation is out there. You are the better judge,” DeLauro said.
Kimberly Sullivan, a student at Sound School, said there is a “process of what kids get addicted to by grade,” beginning with marijuana in freshman and sophomore years, analog tobacco cigarettes in junior year and e‑cigarettes in senior year.
Students on the panel and in the audience said they hope the representatives would return to hold another, more in-depth discussion on e‑cigarettes. Sedenszki said he had come just to learn about the “political aspects” of vaping and was shocked at some of the information he learned. “I would really love to have these people back,” he said.