Tonight’s the night to “Halt the Summer Haze.”
That’s the title of an online session the Near North District School Board is hosting tonight. It’s part of the board’s strategy to curb student vaping, a strategy that includes installing vape detectors within schools, collaborating with the Lung Foundation, and promoting a new app called Quash.
Tonight’s webinar is designed to give parents and family members information about vaping and offer suggestions about how to talk with your child about vaping, and how stress can play a role in a student’s decision to vape.
The seminar begins this evening, from 7 to 8 p.m. It’s free to attend (it’s online) and folks can join by following this link. Scroll down until you see the June 12th listing for Halt the Summer Haze.
This outreach is part of the school board’s initiatives to prevent students from vaping, and to help them quit if they’ve already started. Last year, a pilot project was started to reduce vaping and detectors were installed within the bathrooms at Almaguin Highlands Secondary School in South River.
Now, the NNDSB, with financial support from the Ministry of Education, is installing vape detectors in all of its school.
See: Board’s pilot project reduces vaping on campus
A vape is also known as an electronic cigarette. It’s a device designed to simulate tobacco smoking. Vapes turn liquid into vapour instead of smoke, and these liquids come in all variety of flavours. Often, the liquid contains nicotine, and like cigarettes, can be addictive.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions out there and a lot of myths,” around vaping, noted Emily Samuel from The Near North District School Board. She’s helping to oversee the board’s anti-vaping initiatives, and noted how helpful the North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit has been, “helping with resources, ensuring that we have the most up-to-date information.”
The board has also been working with the Lung Health Association, which recently launched an app for your phone. It’s called Quash, and is designed to support people as they quit smoking or vaping.
Most of the students vaping were grade 11 and 12 students, Samuel said, “so we talked with them” to learn more, and one theme that emerged was that “they felt like they wouldn’t be able to quit or reduce use, but they also had very strong feelings about not wanting their younger siblings or cousins or friends to begin using.”
The board wants to help these students kick the habit and remind them that it’s not too late. The idea is to help, rather than punish, and ensure students understand they have support if they want to quit.
One issue with vaping is “how quickly you can go through the liquid in a vape device,” noted Kaitlyn Allen of the Lung Health Foundation. “There are laws around how concentrated each puff can be, but what we hear a lot is that kids are using it to kind of self-medicate feelings of anxiousness or nervousness.”
“A lot of kids don’t even make the connection that what they’re using is a nicotine product,” she added. Also, Allen described vaping as “dangerously discrete,” as it doesn’t have the distinctive smell of cigarette smoke, so parents may be unaware their child is indulging.
Education is key, both Samuel and Allen agree, and spreading information about vaping is paramount. “There are ways to spread this message,” Allen said of the program, “and part of what we’re trying to do in the Near North District is to get that presence in the schools where we can have these frank conversations and speak to young people about things that are important to them.”
“We’re going to help them and show them alternatives.” One of those is the recently launched Quash app that helps young people quit smoking and vaping.
“They can download it right to their phone,” Allen said, “and it can guide them through cravings and help them to rethink their behaviour and give ideas about what to do when a craving hits. Because this is a real, physical thing that these kids are going through.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
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