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While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken the stage all over the world, a “hidden” epidemic has taken over countless youth lives that deserves the same attention.
We are in the midst of an e-cigarette epidemic of unparalleled proportion. 81% of kids who have ever used a tobacco product started with a flavored one, and over half of youth smokers smoke menthols, compared to just a third of adult smokers. 72% of youth tobacco users have used a flavored tobacco product in the past month including the one in four high school students and one in ten middle school students who use e-cigarettes.
Growing evidence shows that youth like me are now in even more danger as smokers and vapers are at a greater risk of hospitalization and severe illness due to COVID-19.
Too many youth are suffering because of the traps Big Tobacco has set out for us. As a high-schooler, I have first hand smelt the notoriously delicious scent of these products in the school bathrooms, but as we all know bathrooms should not smell like a candy store. I’ve seen students in middle and high school so addicted to tobacco products that they must vape into their backpacks in class and even exchange Juuls during lessons.
To make matters worse, peer pressure has developed around these lifetaking products — where if a teen declines to take a puff, they are then bullied into taking the first step toward a possible addiction.
With every puff, every pod and every cigarette, teens and pre-teens’ health, their education, and their futures are compromised, all because of tobacco industry targeting. They are distancing themselves from their goals and have been given almost no support from adults.
The sadness in all of this is that our generation has so much potential; among us are the next entrepreneurs, presidents, Olympians, doctors, professors — the future is supposed to be ours. However if more and more young people are not stopped from continuing down this dangerous path, our destination will not be safe, healthy, happy, or by any means a success.
Youth need the adults in power to take action and protect us from companies who have silently been hooking kids and destroying their lives for the sake of profits. Luckily, California has a real chance to save our and future generations from these companies with Senate Bill 793.
By passing this bill, legislators will prevent more of my peers from becoming addicted to or hurt by these products. It will allow us to have a bigger and better chance at a safer, healthier, happier and more successful future.
We are thankful to Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan who has already taken steps to support and protect my peers and I. We hope she will continue the fight for our future in the next two weeks as legislators face heavy lobbying from Big Tobacco.
We also hope you will join us on this journey to make this “hidden” epidemic known and help today’s children.
Editor’s note: Agamroop Kaur is a member of Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit YAB and a junior at Dougherty Valley High School. She is also an advocate for youth health.
