Vaping’s Not My Thing
The Food and Drug Administration is running another ridiculous and despicable anti-vaping campaign
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by Dave Cross
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The competition1 isn’t the worst aspect of the campaign, even if the thrust promotes a lie. Students are encouraged to create a poster convincing their peers to be worried about “the risks” of vaping.
Children are being lured in with the promise of winning a $500 first prize or on of the runner-up $200 prizes. To ensure there is participation, teachers2 are being bribed with the prospect of sharing in the rewards. The teachers of the winners will also pocket $500, or $200 for the runners-up.
The FDA plans on “adapting” the winning entries to use for in-school use.
“Many youths think vaping is harmless, but it can have serious health consequences,” the FDA tells teaching staff.
“Share the student magazine3 with your students and discuss key facts about how vaping can affect their health. Use the questions included in the Contest Planner to guide the discussion. Ask: Why do you think the teens on page 3 of the magazine chose to share their experiences?”
The FDA claims the “facts” include pods containing “as much nicotine as a whole packet of cigarettes”. It is widely accepted that vapers self-titrate, and this equivalency is meaningless.
It continues: “The vapor in e-cigarettes also exposes you to toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, acrolein, and acetaldehyde, as well as harmful metal particles: nickel, lead, chromium, tin, and aluminium.”
As Planet of the Vapes demonstrated last week4, even something as harmless as an apple contains heavy metals, formaldehyde, and even cyanide – and yet, to date, the FDA is not promoting competitions about them to children and advocating the restriction of apple sales to under-21s.
Teachers are instructed to ask the students how the cited first-person accounts “support the scientific information in the text?” As all scientists appreciate, the one thing sound science needs is the support of inexperienced teenage anecdotes.
“It was making me feel less than who I was. My confidence was just dropping,” says Katelyn.
“It was not helping me cope, it was cancelling out my ability to cope,” says Isaak.
Vaping made Chloe leave class and Kd-jo (aged 11) vaped until she was so anxious she couldn’t leave her house. Apparently. It has not been published what reward these teens received for sharing their personal stories.
Adding to the hysteria, the FDA then talks about the signs of “vaping addiction” in terms similar to its previous war on drugs and directs “those suffering” to treatment options.
The only thing truly toxic going on here is the Food and Drug Administration and its marketing of vaping to teens to make it seem an edgy lifestyle choice. Will they never learn?
References:
- Competition rubric and entry information - https://www.scholastic.com/youthvapingrisks/contest_entryinfo_rubric.pdf
- Teaching guide - https://www.scholastic.com/youthvapingrisks/teaching_guide_contestplanner.pdf
- The student magazine - https://www.scholastic.com/youthvapingrisks/studentmagazine_therisksofvaping.pdf
- Fruity little dangers - https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/opinions/2021-02-12_fruity-little-dangers.html
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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