In my previous post, I discussed what the issue of teen vaping looks like inside of a wealthy, Coloradan suburb. What I found was shocking, with over one in three students having used a vaping product, and over 40% of those students using a vape product more than once a day. In this post, I will expand my view and look at the issue of vaping on a holistic, national scale in order to compare the issues on a local scale versus a national scale.
To start, it is important to recognize how quickly vaping has become an issue on the national stage. 1.7 million high school students reported using a vape product in the past 30 days. Organizations like the FDA and CNN are calling it an "epidemic" with rates of usage absolutely skyrocketing over the past few years in all parts across the country. In fact, in 2013, nearly three times as many U.S. high school kids smoked as puffed on electronic cigarettes. Within two short years, that trend has reversed. Today, almost twice as many high school kids vape as smoke. The usage of vaping products has exploded in an extremely short amount of time as can be seen below.
There are a couple things to keep in mind from the chart above. First off, it's quite easy to see how the usage of vaping products has snowballed uncontrollably, with vaping currently being the most prolific nicotine product. The other thing to keep in mind here is that as vaping products have flourished, usage of other nicotine products like cigarettes, cigars, and hookahs have quickly declined, indicating that many users are simply switching to vape products. I will get into the reason why they are doing so in my next post. But it's clear to see how rapidly vaping has taken over the nicotine industry.
Looking at the actual rates of usage of vaping products among teens nationally and comparing them to local rates of usage, we see something very interesting. A survey revealed that 27.8 percent of high school seniors reported vaping in the past year across the nation. What is interesting to note, however, is that this number is substantially less than the percentage of high schoolers in Highlands Ranch who vape (37.7%). There are a couple reasons why this could be the case. Highlands Ranch is an incredibly wealthy area in Douglas County, which is the 6th richest county in all of America as ranked by Business Insider. This means that high schoolers in this county are more likely to have enough money to spend on vaping products such as "Juul." Even beyond this, culturally, vaping is seen very differently in Highlands Ranch. Students do not necessarily view vape products as dangerous at all. Instead they see them as either a cheap, less dangerous alternative to smoking, or as a way to achieve a quick buzz. Another possible reason that this is the case is because my survey had an error rate of ±7%, meaning that if the survey's results are 7% too high, the actual percentage of students who have vaped is 30%, which is far closer to the national rate.
It's obvious how quickly the vape industry has taken over the nicotine market and taken over high schools all across America. But whether you look at this problem though a local lens or a nation lens, it is clear to see that this is a real problem plaguing our teens.
TL;DR Vape products have quickly overtaken cigarettes, hookahs, and other forms of nicotine delivery to dominate the nicotine market. When we compare local rates in Douglas County to the nation, we find that Douglas County has slightly higher rates of usage, which can be attributed either to how wealthy the district is or, or statistical errors in the surveys conducted.
-AB
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Selig, Roni. “Vaping Now an Epidemic among US High Schoolers.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Apr. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/health/high-schools-vaping-epidemic/index.html.
Raloff, Janet. “Teen Vaping Soars Past Cigarette Use.” Science News for Students, Science News for Students, 25 Apr. 2017, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teen-vaping-soars-past-cigarette-use.
Newman, Katelyn. “NIH Survey: Students Vaping, Using Marijuana More in 2017.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 14 Dec. 2017, www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-12-14/nih-survey-alcohol-marijuana-and-vaping-top-students-2017-drug-use.
Geldis, Kali. “The 15 Richest Counties In America.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Feb. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/where-the-one-percent-live-the-15-richest-counties-in-america-2012-2#6h-richest-douglas-county-colo-10.
To start, it is important to recognize how quickly vaping has become an issue on the national stage. 1.7 million high school students reported using a vape product in the past 30 days. Organizations like the FDA and CNN are calling it an "epidemic" with rates of usage absolutely skyrocketing over the past few years in all parts across the country. In fact, in 2013, nearly three times as many U.S. high school kids smoked as puffed on electronic cigarettes. Within two short years, that trend has reversed. Today, almost twice as many high school kids vape as smoke. The usage of vaping products has exploded in an extremely short amount of time as can be seen below.
 |
| This graph shows recent trends in tobacco-product use by high school students. The bars represent the percent of students who said they’d used each product in the past 30 days. Adapted from T. Singh et al, April 15, 2016, MMWR |
There are a couple things to keep in mind from the chart above. First off, it's quite easy to see how the usage of vaping products has snowballed uncontrollably, with vaping currently being the most prolific nicotine product. The other thing to keep in mind here is that as vaping products have flourished, usage of other nicotine products like cigarettes, cigars, and hookahs have quickly declined, indicating that many users are simply switching to vape products. I will get into the reason why they are doing so in my next post. But it's clear to see how rapidly vaping has taken over the nicotine industry.
Looking at the actual rates of usage of vaping products among teens nationally and comparing them to local rates of usage, we see something very interesting. A survey revealed that 27.8 percent of high school seniors reported vaping in the past year across the nation. What is interesting to note, however, is that this number is substantially less than the percentage of high schoolers in Highlands Ranch who vape (37.7%). There are a couple reasons why this could be the case. Highlands Ranch is an incredibly wealthy area in Douglas County, which is the 6th richest county in all of America as ranked by Business Insider. This means that high schoolers in this county are more likely to have enough money to spend on vaping products such as "Juul." Even beyond this, culturally, vaping is seen very differently in Highlands Ranch. Students do not necessarily view vape products as dangerous at all. Instead they see them as either a cheap, less dangerous alternative to smoking, or as a way to achieve a quick buzz. Another possible reason that this is the case is because my survey had an error rate of ±7%, meaning that if the survey's results are 7% too high, the actual percentage of students who have vaped is 30%, which is far closer to the national rate.
It's obvious how quickly the vape industry has taken over the nicotine market and taken over high schools all across America. But whether you look at this problem though a local lens or a nation lens, it is clear to see that this is a real problem plaguing our teens.
TL;DR Vape products have quickly overtaken cigarettes, hookahs, and other forms of nicotine delivery to dominate the nicotine market. When we compare local rates in Douglas County to the nation, we find that Douglas County has slightly higher rates of usage, which can be attributed either to how wealthy the district is or, or statistical errors in the surveys conducted.
-AB
_____________________________________________________________________________
Selig, Roni. “Vaping Now an Epidemic among US High Schoolers.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Apr. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/04/06/health/high-schools-vaping-epidemic/index.html.
Raloff, Janet. “Teen Vaping Soars Past Cigarette Use.” Science News for Students, Science News for Students, 25 Apr. 2017, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teen-vaping-soars-past-cigarette-use.
Newman, Katelyn. “NIH Survey: Students Vaping, Using Marijuana More in 2017.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 14 Dec. 2017, www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-12-14/nih-survey-alcohol-marijuana-and-vaping-top-students-2017-drug-use.
Geldis, Kali. “The 15 Richest Counties In America.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Feb. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/where-the-one-percent-live-the-15-richest-counties-in-america-2012-2#6h-richest-douglas-county-colo-10.
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