Hammonton Library hosts presentation on e-cigarette usage
Page 4 • Wednesday, January 16, 2019 • The Hammonton Gazette
LIBRARY, from Page 1
of Tobacco Free for a Healthy N.J.
(TFHNJ), a statewide project co-
ordinated by the New Jersey Pre-
vention
Network,
led
a
presentation titled “Don’t Get
Vaped In” at the Hammonton
branch of the Atlantic County Li-
brary System to educate both par-
ents and children about the
hazards of e-cigarette usage.
The presentation was led by
TFHNJ Southern Regional Coor-
dinator Kim Burns and Southern
Regional Youth Coordinator Carlo
Favretto Jr. as part of the Atlantic
County Children’s Inter-Agency
Coordinating Council’s (CIACC)
speaker’s bureau.
Burns said e-cigarettes have
quickly become so prevalent that
many parents and school districts
aren’t sure how to address the
issue.
“It’s an overwhelming problem
for our schools, especially be-
cause many of their policies don’t
even deal with it. So, it’s like this
exploded and it wasn’t really on
anybody’s radar … As soon as we
started researching we were like
‘Oh, wow, we are so far behind on
this,’” Burns said.
While e-cigarettes are com-
monly perceived as safer alterna-
tives to traditional tobacco
products, Burns said many of the
pods/cartridges within e-cigarettes
contain highly concentrated nico-
tine salts, which are often deliv-
ered in a flavorful vapor the
appeals to youth and is easier to
inhale than tobacco smoke.
“Each of these [Juul] pods has
about 50 mg of nicotine, and to
put that in perspective, a regular
combustible cigarette has about 2
mg. So, 50 mg in a pod equals
about 200 puffs and it is equal to
more than a pack of cigarettes. It’s
about 25 cigarettes in one of these
little pods,” Burns said.
Favretto Jr. said parents need to
be educated and aware of what to
look for if they suspect their child
is using e-cigarettes, many of
which can easily be mistaken for
an unsuspecting USB thumb
drive.
“It’s so common to see a device
like this among middle, high
school students and college stu-
dents. Everyone’s using a USB—
to save your memory on it, to
perform college or high school
work—so we have to try to get
them to stop using these devices.
We have to get not just the youth
educated but parents educated too,
so you know whether or not your
youth are using these devices,”
Favretto Jr. said.
Burns said it became increas-
ingly evident that parents are often
unaware of the risks of e-cigarette
usage when a TFHNJ audit of area
tobacco retail establishments re-
vealed that parents will oftentimes
be the ones to purchase these
products for their children while
they accompany them.
“The parents are not educated
enough to know what they’re buy-
ing, so it’s important for us to not
only give these presentations to
the youth so they are aware, but
also to parents … Parents are of
the understanding that it’s just
something cool that all the kids
are doing and it’s harmless,”
Burns said.
In addition to having a high
concentration of addictive nico-
tine, Favretto Jr. said that e-ciga-
rette devices themselves can
dangerous because of a heating
proponent near the battery that
rapidly heats the liquid within the
pods and cartridges before the
vapor is inhaled.
“What we found among many
of these smoking devices is they
have the ability to blow up,
whether it be in your pocket, in
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