The Cheshire High School PTO will host a presentation Wednesday night to educate parents about the dangers of teen vaping.
"A lot of parents brought up the fact that this vaping was occurring," PTO member Maura Esposito told NBC Connecticut.
Esposito is the Chesprocott Health Director and the mother of two Cheshire High School students.
"I’ve told them I disapprove of it," she said.
The goal of the presentation by a Sacred Heart University nursing student is to inform parents about the health consequences and different types of vaping devices, Esposito said.
"Vaping was sold to the public as a means to help adults curb their smoking habits," Esposito said, "but when you look at flavors like “tootie fruitie” that really doesn’t appeal to the adults so much."
Esposito said she wants parents to know what to look for because without the distinct smell of cigarettes, vaping can be harder to detect.
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"When you start showing (parents) what that little device looks like, it looks like a flash drive, parents, it’s not a flash drive it’s a Juul," she said.
E-cigarette company Juul Labs announced it will stop selling flavored pods in stores, but products can still be purchased online.
"So parents need to be monitoring what’s being delivered to the house," Chesprocott Public Health Specialist Kate Glendon said.
Studies have found teens that vape are more likely to start smoking cigarettes, Yale School of Medicine Professor Dr. Deep Camenga said.
"We worked for 30, 40 years to reduce cigarette smoking rates among teens in America and really there’s a huge concern because we may be reversing all those gains we’ve made over the years because of the popularity of vaping," Camenga said.
While some long-term consequences are still unknown, teens exposed to nicotine from vaping are more vulnerable to addiction because their brains are still developing, Camenga said.
"Sometimes we want to be really great friends with our kids," Esposito said, "but ultimately you are the parent and if I know its harmful for them, their brains are still developing and they can think that they’re making the best decision but we know where addiction has led us."
One Juul vaping pod contains the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes and some teens report using one pod each day.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to release a detailed plan on how to curb teenage vaping this week.
