Editorial: Bill will help keep children healthy

When a syndicated columnist wrote about e-cigarettes and vaping on this page Dec. 28, we received a superb, local refutation of the opinion from Dr. Alice Little Caldwell, a pediatrician at Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia. She emailed and “snail-mailed” her response to make doubly sure we’d hear what she had to say about the very real youth vaping epidemic, and we agree with her 100%.

Her letter, in part: “The use of e-cigarettes is a complicated issue, with the potential benefits for some (to enhance [smoking] cessation) needing to be balanced against the potential for harm in a vulnerable population (children and adolescents),” Dr. Caldwell said. “The Augusta Chronicle should run a current, factual review of e-cigarettes and their public health consequences. To quote the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ‘There is no safe tobacco product. All tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, carry a risk.’”

Exactly. And now is an ideal time to present readers with a fact or two, in light of a bill introduced in the Georgia General Assembly.

Sen. Renee Unterman is proposing in Senate Bill 298 that Georgia’s legal minimum age to purchase tobacco and vaping products rise from 18 to 21. President Trump would agree - he signed a law Dec. 20 raising the federal minimum age to 21.

Unterman’s bill also calls for e-cigarette companies to halt advertising that might entice children. Some vape-pod flavors sound like a sweet-shop inventory list: “cotton candy,” “gummi bear,” “cupcake.” Because of that sweet temptation to youths, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a federal policy Jan. 2 prohibiting many flavored vape products.

E-cigarettes look like cigarettes but are discarded after one use. Vaping, which is more popular, involves battery-powered vape pens with refillable cartridges. We’ll call all of it “vaping” to keep descriptions simple.

The damage vaping causes is called "e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury" (EVALI) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Jan. 14, the CDC has recognized 2,668 hospitalized EVALI cases or deaths from across the country.

Sixty deaths have been confirmed in 27 states and the District of Columbia. Georgia has reported 41 cases and six deaths.

According to the FDA’s 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey, more than 5 million U.S. middle- and high-school students have vaped in the past 30 days. Most use those refillable cartridges, most likely flavored

There’s still much to be learned about vaping. We personally know vapers who are thrilled that it allowed them to kick their disgusting smoking habits and taper off nicotine addiction. It’s like nicotine patches, but a different delivery system. And we agree vaping is better than smelling - and inhaling - tobacco smoke that blacken lungs with killer toxins.

How bad is vaping? The CDC strongly links a chemical compound called vitamin E acetate to vaping injuries and deaths. But they still have no idea precisely what other compounds might be harming vapers.

As Unterman has said, the bill’s purpose “is to curb addiction among children. Unfortunately, with vaping, it might be a killer.”

Adults rightfully can choose whether to vape, just like smokers can choose whether to smoke. And like smoking, children obviously shouldn’t be lured into vaping. S.B. 298 obviously should become law.