Vape Culture

Local health experts tackle teen e-cigarette use

Does your teen know the dangers of vaping? Despite efforts to reduce teen cigarette smoking, youth vaping use has almost doubled in Androscoggin County for both middle school and high school students from 2017-2020.

This sharp rise has prompted health experts in the region to come together and take action. St. Mary’s Health System, Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) and Healthy Androscoggin are collaborating to address this growing public health issue with an anti-vaping campaign targeting youth. Funded in part by a generous grant from Covenant Health, this initiative gets the word out to kids about the dangers of vaping, providing key resources for quitting or helping loved ones quit. Young adults and teens who vape face a more serious risk of getting COVID-19, making the need for this outreach more essential than ever. 

Working with local substance use disorder counselors from the Lewiston and Auburn school systems, the campaign aims to fire up youth as influential voices among their peers in the education, prevention and treatment efforts for vaping. A youth-led social media push this spring will open teens’ eyes to the facts, health effects and risks of vaping. 

Jenny Cowie, mission integration manager at St. Mary’s, is working on a photo voice project about vaping. “I am excited to collaborate with my youth group and see through their lens what drives them to either consider vaping or what makes them avoid it completely,” she says. In a perfect world, Cowie would love to see vaping and cigarette use eliminated. Realistically, she hopes this campaign might give youth considering vaping or experiencing peer-pressure a chance to pause, consider the side effects and long-term harm on their bodies, and just say no.

For free and confidential support to quit vaping, text “MAINE” to 88709.