More Action Needed To Combat Vaping By Students

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 CAP education officer NV Subbarow says teachers themselves are often unaware of the types of vapes students use and the harmful contents in vape liquids.
More teenagers aged 13 to 17 are vaping, with the rate increasing from 9.8% in 2017 to 14.9% in 2022.PETALING JAYA: The Consumers’ Association of Penang has called for increased efforts to combat the growing vaping crisis among students, warning that current measures are insufficient to address the severity and spread of the problem
CAP education officer NV Subbarow said teachers themselves are often unaware of the types of vapes students use and the harmful contents in vape liquids, including high levels of nicotine and sometimes even drugs
NV Subbarow.“CAP is educating the teachers and discipline teachers on the dangers of vaping and e-cigarettes. Many are shocked to see the various flavours, disposable vapes, and nicotine bottles brought into schools,” he said.
Apart from calling for the introduction of mobile educational units by the health ministry to reach out directly to students, Subbarow stressed that more educational material about the dangers of vaping must be developed and widely distributed across both primary and secondary schools.
“There are a few pamphlets from the health ministry, but it’s simply not enough. Nobody reads them. We need impactful posters, banners, and streamers with colorful visuals that actually grab students’ attention,” he said.
The veteran anti-smoking advocate, who was recently honoured for his work in educating the public about the dangers of smoking and substance abuse for the past three decades, said his efforts have reached more than 25,000 primary and secondary school students across the country.
He noted that during his talks at schools, real-life images of youth hospitalised with vaping-related lung injuries often have a strong impact on students, leading some to quit on the spot or hand over their vaping devices.
“Vaping-associated lung injury is a serious, potentially fatal condition. When students see these effects, it scares them,” he said. “Sometimes I warn them about the risk of impotence, and the male students immediately react.”
Wee Lei Hum.Wee Lei Hum from the faculty of health and medical sciences at Taylor’s University said more teenagers aged 13 to 17 are vaping, with the rate increasing from 9.8% in 2017 to 14.9% in 2022.
Citing health ministry data, she also said nearly one in four boys (23.3%) were using e-cigarettes compared to 6.2% for girls.
Despite that, she noted that resources and training for teachers and parents who want to help students stop vaping, or even spot the early signs, are limited and fragmented.
Wee, a former health education officer at the ministry, said although there is structured training aimed at equipping school counsellors and selected teachers with skills to support students in quitting smoking and vaping, it is not held regularly and not included in the school curriculum.
For parents, public health education campaigns remain sporadic, and training or tools to recognise early signs of vaping are not widely available, she said.
Wee said multi-agency collaboration, including partnerships with NGOs and digital platforms, is needed to develop user-friendly tools and resources to help families intervene early.
“To better serve the youth, there is an urgent need to develop youth-specific digital quit tools such as mobile apps, peer support groups, and social media-based interventions,” she said.
She stressed that affordability, accessibility and youth engagement must be central to any strategy to quit smoking or vaping moving forward. - FMT

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