Southern 7 Health Department seeing increase in teen vaping – KBSI Fox 23 Cape Girardeau News – KBSI Fox 23 Cape Girardeau News | Paducah News

ANNA, Ill. (KBSI) Vaping is a fast-growing health concern especially among teens.

Sydney Shelton with the Southern 7 Health Department says young adults are the target demographic for these products.

The brain is still developing when youre at that young age, so its just harmful for the brain in that way, cause your brain doesnt stop developing until youre 25, said Shelton.

Shelton shares that S7HD heads a program for young adults to learn about the dangers of vaping.

Thats just a curriculum that we go in and show them this is what vapes are, make sure to stay away from them, she said. We also go into the tobacco, big tobacco, and how they advertise to a single population, that cant make conscience decisions.

Recently the health department started a new podcast called The Southern Seven Podcast.

Shawna Rhine is S7HDs community outreach coordinator.

Its designed to talk to people about what they can do to stop vaping in their home and in their life, said Rhine. Its not meant to degrade, or undermine anybody, but its just an opportunity to get some information, so you can share it with others.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.5 million youth were reported to have used e-cigarettes in 2022. E-cigarette use is down in U.S. high school students in 2023, but Rhine says they are seeing use of e-cigarettes increase in teens in the S7HD regions.

Again seeing an increase in teens in our region who are vaping more and more, it is something that our schools are concerned about, she said. Family members are concerned about but with it becoming more prevalent, in our region we just want people to know all the facts and have all the information about it.

Rhine adds that it is not something that is designed to replace smoking, but just another form of smoking.

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Southern 7 Health Department seeing increase in teen vaping - KBSI Fox 23 Cape Girardeau News - KBSI Fox 23 Cape Girardeau News | Paducah News