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3 Kamloops organizations look at the impacts of vaping on health

Impacting world of vaping

Three groups in the Tournament Capital are collaborating to look at the effects of vaping on health.

The project is being spearheaded by the Kamloops-Thompson School District (SD 73), Interior Health and Thompson Rivers University. The partnership comes just five days after the B.C. government said it was tightening the rules around the sale, marketing and taxation of vaping products to lessen the appeal to youth.

The initiative has three parts; the first is called Vaping Knowledge Mobilization — Come Learn With Us. This section is all about delivering an interactive presentation to more than 4,000 students in the district. Local kids get to hear how vaping devices work, what the ingredients are, and how these ingredients may be harmful to the brain and body. 

Sherry Stade, SD 73's health promoting schools coordinator, says the presentation was designed following consultation with 800 high school and TRU students. Each person in the group answered five questions about their understanding of vaping.

"We wanted to understand students' interpretation of vaping," explains Stade. "That really informed how we put our presentation together."

Students knew vaping was bad, but wanted to know if it was safer than smoking. They were also keen to learn about the ingredients in e-juice, says Stade.

The presentation will target Grade 6 and 7 students during the current fall term, from Oct. to Dec. Grade 8, 9 and 10 students will follow in the winter term. 

"When we do our presentation, students are really telling us they had no idea of the amount of nicotine content," says Stade. "They weren't really aware of what they were inhaling into their lungs."

Some students believe e-cigarettes contain zero nicotine, she adds, noting the entry-level vaping devices have some of the highest nicotine concentrations.

"The main misconception (students have) is that it's flavoured water."

Part two of the vaping inquiry is called Collective Intelligence — Community Engagement. This part will involve an evening health forum on Feb. 20, 2020; featured speakers include Dr. Marvin Krank, a professor of psychology at UBC Okanagan.

Part three, dubbed Collective Intelligence — Student Engagement, will see SD 73 and TRU students lead a day-long health forum in early 2020. Up to 200 students are expected to attend the session, which will focus on finding solutions that could make a meaningful difference for the health outcomes of youth.   

The partnership, which includes the TRU Faculty of Science and the TRU School of Nursing, is being funded through a Mind the Gap grant from the TRU Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. 



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