Despite vaping among young youth now considered an epidemic in the entire U.S., West Virginia high school students appear to be more addicted to e-cigarettes than the national average.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (WVDHHR) released a report in mid-January that found almost 36 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes in 2019, compared with 28 percent nationwide.

West Virginia junior high students also appear to vape at a higher rate than seen nationally. More than one in six West Virginia junior high students say they vape, which clocks in at about five percent above the national average.

Local television station WHSV published an Associated Press overview of “West Virginia Youth and Vaping: A Dangerous Combination,” the WVDHHR report that details the widespread use of e-cigarettes among the state’s junior high and high school student populations.

“This report, compiled in part with data from the West Virginia Department of Education, is critical to addressing the youth vaping epidemic in West Virginia. This trend is alarming given the irreparable, adverse impact of nicotine use during adolescence, a time of rapid and continuing brain and social development,” said Dr. Cathy Slemp, State Health Officer and Commissioner of DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health. “Nicotine use can make West Virginia’s youth susceptible to lifelong addiction and potentially promote addiction to other substances.”

West Virginia Youth Addicted to E-Cigarettes

Slemp told West Virginia Metro News that the most startling statistic is that high schoolers have increased their vape use by 150 percent between 2017 and 2019.

In 2019, more than 62 percent of West Virginia high school students said they had tried vaping, compared with 44 percent in 2017.

She said the numbers are frightening, especially because many people continue to mistakenly believe that vaping is safer than smoking. Slemp said not only students, but also parents, are unaware that commercially available e-cigarettes and vaping e-juices contain nicotine at all.

Some users of vaping devices refer to e-cigarettes as e-hookahs, vape pens, tank systems, mods and ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems).

Juul, the most popular e-cigarette brand that controls 75 percent of the market, is an e-cigarette shaped like a jump drive. Replaceable Juul pods provide e-juice that when heated, becomes a vapor inhaled by the user. Some Juul pods contain more nicotine than an entire pack of cigarettes.

Slemp said during the study, some high school students said they have friends who use three Juul pods a day, which is equivalent to a 3-pack-a-day cigarette habit. Even so, many students don’t realize they are addicted to e-cigarettes.

Two West Virginia counties have banned e-cigarette use in public places. The health departments in Kanawha-Charleston and Cabell-Huntington were the first to issue such a ban, but Slemp said more than two dozen other county boards of health are in the midst of issuing similar restrictions.

As of Jan. 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has verified 2,711 hospitalized cases and 60 deaths from a serious lung illness linked to vaping, but the majority of those patients reported vaping bootlegged marijuana products containing vitamin E acetate. Nicknamed EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping product use-Associated Lung Injury), the lung illness became most prevalent in September 2019, but has been on a decline. The age of patients has ranged from 15 years to 75 years old.

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