Florida doctors alarmed by amount of health concerns linked to teen vaping
WEAR News | By Karris Harmon | January 25, 2024
PENSACOLA, Fla. — It’s something we’ve known for decades: smoking can cause serious health complications to your lungs and heart. But where does that leave vapes and e-cigarettes?
Some people believe vapes can be a healthier nicotine alternative. But a doctor WEAR News spoke with this week says vapes may have a direct correlation to strokes, especially in young patients.
He says there can be a multitude of health complications caused by them.
An anti-vaping advocate says kids as young as 4th grade are starting to experiment with vapes.
Data from the Food and Drug Administration from 2023 says that more than 1 in 4 youth uses e-cigarettes everyday.
“Smoking is a very big thing and something that I’m very concerned about is all of these new vapes that you see teenagers have. I’ve had young patients who are vaping have strokes,” Dr. Charles Schutt said.
A study published in the National Library of Medicine in 2021 found that not only do e-cigarettes and vapes lead to injuries in the airway and lungs, it also affects your heart.
The researchers say the usage of vapes and e-cigs can cause microvascular dysfunction and stiffen your aorta, which can be the perfect recipe for stroke.
Dr. James Burns is an adolescent medicine pediatrician at Studer Family Children’s Hospital says in recent years he’s seen a market increase in vaping in adolescents.
“Well certainly in high school and early years. 9th grade and 10th graders, even earlier in middle school,” Dr. Burns said.
Deputy Noel Sevilla with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office has made it his mission to help middle school kids escape the vape in Santa Rosa County Schools. He says vapes are hurting some of our youngest populations.
“They’re passing it around in the bathroom. They’re even brave enough to smoke in the hallway or even in the classroom, on school buses,” Deputy Sevilla said. “It’s getting younger and younger, they say they’re fighting vapes with 4th graders and 5th graders.”
Which is alarming to Dr. Burns, because he says it’s hard to know what kind of harmful long term effects they may have on child vapers when they grow up to be adults.
“We’ve had adolescents need lung transplants and there are many deaths,” Dr. Burns said. “The risk, of course, of having excess nicotine in the body puts you at a whole host of medical potential complications.”
