Facing the Fumes: Community Advocacy to Address a Youth Vaping Crisis

Abstract

Background: Vaping is an epidemic among teens. In 2019, nearly 25.6% of Florida high school students reported currently vaping which caused more than 60 deaths and 2600 lung injuries. More than half of these patients being under the age of 24. In the past year, our pediatric program has cared for several teenagers with vaping related illnesses, some even required mechanical ventilatory support. Seeing these previously healthy teens struggling to breath is the motivation behind this project. The primary aim of this project was to reduce children’s access to vaping products …