MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Amid growing concerns about the safety and pervasiveness of e-cigarette use, and a shakeup at JUUL, local schools are reporting a considerable uptick in use among students.
Numbers obtained by News13 reveal the number of tobacco violations more than doubled in Horry County Schools in the past couple of years.
There were 427 reported tobacco violations in the 2017-2018 school year. That figure ballooned to 1,038 violations in the 2018-2019 school year.
As of Sept. 18, there were 62 violations reported this school year.
Although these numbers include violations from all forms of tobacco, it’s the e-cigarette use that is most prominent and concerning to school administration.
“We’re definitely seeing those trends as the popularity of that device has picked up interest,” Horry County Schools spokesperson Lisa Bourcier told News13. “Mainly if we’re seeing someone that is in possession of these devices, it’s usually the ecigarette type of device or a pod.”
The district ramped up punishment for students caught with these products in August, in an effort to help curb this trend.
“Principals gave us feedback in wanting a little more flexibility in the disciplinary infractions for adding additional terms or infractions to that because of blatant use,” Bourcier said. “When you’re actually using and smoking that device and selling pods to other students- that’s something that’s pretty serious and we want to make sure we make a statement.”
Meanwhile, at Grand Strand Medical Center, doctors are seeing more cases of lung illnesses connected to vaping.
News13 brought you exclusive coverage of Grand Strand’s first vaping related injury on Sept. 11.
Since then, doctors there have treated an addition 3-4 cases.
Resident physician Devin Bazick calls vaping a ‘major health concern in our community.’
“There are a lot of concerns about vaping especially in teens and young adults,” Dr. Bazick said. “Nicotine can have harmful effects on a developing brain, especially with learning, attention control and developing addictive behavior.”
Aside from potential psychological impacts, Dr. Bazick warns of respiratory side effects.
“(It’s the) the harmful chemicals that are in vape products like nicotine, flavorings that we know are linked to chronic lung diseases, as well as heavy metals like lead and nickel,” Dr. Bazick said. Those can all have harmful effects whether its a child or an adult vaping. Its been linked to cases of pneumonia, instances of respiratory failure which wind up people in the hospital”
Critics of the vaping industry say brands marketed their products towards youth, and that’s a factor behind the increase in teen vaping.
Juul Labs announced Wednesday the company is halting all U.S. advertising and replacing its CEO.
We asked Coastal Carolina professor of marketing, Dr. Michael Latta, if these accusations are grounded.
He said they were.
“The thrust has been to try to get the younger people started on JUUL because that’s a lot longer lifetime of use than an older person would be,” Latta said. “Younger folks who are naive- don’t realize that they’re being sort of directed with things like flavors.”
JUUL’s use of flavors, along with several other marketing techniques, are the subject of a Stanford study released earlier this year. The study analyzes JUUL’s advertising from 2015-2018.
“Its findings are since 2015, when they first launched JUUL, the preponderance of the ads and the media they used were directed at younger people,” Latta said. “There were no older folks even in the images they used.”
In a statement, Juul Labs told News13 the following:
“We have never marketed to youth and we never will. Our earliest marketing campaign in 2015, Vaporized, was intended for adult smokers, ages 25-34, and lasted for less than six months. A review of the sales and revenue data shows that it didn’t drive use, youth or otherwise. Nonetheless, we recognize how that campaign was perceived. To avoid any misconceptions and to uphold our commitment to keeping nicotine out of the hands of underage users, our marketing efforts exclusively feature adult smokers who share their personal experiences about switching to JUUL products from combustible cigarettes – all conveyed in a style, tone and message tailored to current adult smokers.”
News13 also reached out to several vape shops along the Grand Strand. Not one was open to doing an interview.
Many owners and workers did express their frustration with the potential federal flavor bans and public scrutiny.
They noted illnesses are often caused by improperly prepared cartridges purchased on the black market, not in legitimate vape stores.
Although no vape store owners would talk to us, Truvia Wilkes would.
He owns several beachside stores in Myrtle Beach that have sold vape products for about five years.
“There’s always an overreaction. And then there’s an overreach,” Wilkes said. “The vaporizers and e-cigarettes have helped many people quit smoking, and no one wants to look at the millions who were helped to quit smoking.”
He also was quick to point out the contradictory stance many take with e-cigarettes’ use of flavors.
“Vodka comes with all kinds of orange juice and everything,” he said. “So why are you attacking one with fruit flavors that cause the most deaths? You’re attacking one that has a minimal bad side to it.”
He ultimately worries the crackdown on vaping will hurt local businesses.
“It’s hard enough for amazon now attacking every brick and mortar,” he said. “So everyone in brick and mortar is already under the strain and stress of amazon. And now of course when you have the government- it’s just a killer of business.”
One thing is for sure among all these questions: still a lot of unknown.
“It’s new,” Dr. Bazick said. “And we just don’t know. That’s the big scary thing is we just don’t know the effects of this is.”