New Mexico: Students smoke less but vape more

The good news: High school students in the state are smoking less cigarettes and chewing tobacco. The bad news: Vaping is on the rise, according to a 2019 study by the New Mexico Department of Health.

Effects that cancel each other out

The survey is being conducted by the DOH and the state Department of Public Education. It’s conducted every two years, and the most recent one came ahead of a new state law passed in 2020 that banned the sale of all tobacco products to anyone under 21, said Dan Green, a DOH epidemiologist. It shows that overall tobacco use has increased by 23 percent since 2009, and that more than a third of high school students use tobacco in some form (37.8 percent). Yet use of all tobacco products other than e-cigarettes has declined. For example, from 2011 to 2019, hookah use declined by 59 percent. So it seems that vaping is somewhat offsetting the decline in use of other tobacco products.

A risky practice

Yet, as DOH epidemiologist James Padilla points out, vaping is not without its dangers: “We are concerned about nicotine addiction because many e-liquids contain nicotine, even when people think they don’t.” He also points out that vaping often begins during a period of physical fragility in young people: “Nicotine is dangerous to pregnant women and fetuses, as well as young people whose brains are still developing. So this is an important time when you don’t want children and young adults to be exposed to the addictive power of nicotine.”

Preventing addiction

Another risk of vaping: that it becomes a gateway to cigarette consumption, even if young people generally consider vaping to be healthier. Indeed, if high school students in New Mexico seem to have identified the dangers of cigarettes, those of vaping do not yet seem obvious to them. This "healthier" reputation of the electronic cigarette, added to the appeal of its flavors and its technological side, partly explain this observation. For James Padilla, this could also be due to the communication, quite recent on the subject, while warnings on the harmful effects of traditional cigarettes have been in place for decades. Hence the importance of maintaining and increasing prevention, awareness-raising and information missions.

A social factor?

Finally, according to Green, it seems that "children who have close ties to their school, good relationships with their parents, teachers, peers and other people in the community who care about them, are much less likely to engage in risky practices." A line of inquiry already mentioned and to which further studies should be devoted.