• UGI USER
  • Aug 26, 2024
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“NEXT-GENERATION GATEWAY DEVICES: THE NEXT HEALTH EMERGENCY”

Syllabus:

  • GS 2: Health, Government Policies and interventions.

Why in the News?

The increasing prevalence of e-cigarette smoking among young people has raised serious public health concerns, highlighting the physical and psychological harm to children as a result of targeted marketing.

Source: Daily mail

Introduction

  • New-age devices such as e-cigarettes and vaping pens, which were marketed to people as safe ways to smoke, are highly lethal affecting children’s health the most.
  • These lead to nicotine dependence even in young children and are now considered a serious public health problem that adversely affects physical and mental well-being.
National Tobacco Control Programme

Launch

  • launched during the 11th Five-Year Plan in the year 2007-08.

Objective

  • Help people understand that tobacco is harmful.
  • Reduce tobacco production and supply.
  • Implement COTPA, 2003 and assist individuals to quit smoking.
  • To adopt the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Implementation

  • 11th Five Year Plan: Initially NTCP was launched in 21 districts out of 42 states.
  • 12th Five-Year Plan: Provide ambitious improvements aimed at reducing consumption by 5%.
  • Tobacco use: fell from 34.6 per cent in 2009-10 to 28.6 per cent in 2016-17, reducing the number of smokers by 8.1 million.

Main functions

  • Training and education: Training for health workers, NGOs, school teachers and enforcers.
  • IEC activities: information, education and communication campaigns.
  • School Programs: School-based tobacco intervention programs.
  • Monitoring and collaboration: partnering with other community organizations to ensure compliance with tobacco laws.

Structure

  • The three-tier chart is compiled through National Tobacco Statistics Group, National Tobacco Statistics Group and Regional Tobacco Control Centre.
  • Current Status: Operating in all the 36 states/UTs, the scheme reaches over 600 districts.

Fraudulent claims about e-cigarettes and similar products

Dangerous truths about so-called healthy choices

  • Misleading claims: E-cigarettes, vaping devices, and other vapors were promoted as safe alternatives for smokers, promising to help them quit smoking.
  • Health Emergencies: Instead of addressing these issues, these measures have created public health problems. They haven’t helped people quit smoking and create new health risks.
  • Effects on young people: The use of these substances has caused serious physical injury and adversely affected the mental health of young people, causing harm to adolescents.

The rise of youth vaping and its consequences

Focus on a different group of customers

  • Companies making e-cigarettes and vaping tools were not aiming to help people quit smoking; they were trying to get boys and girls interested in their products.
  • More people using tobacco: This has caused a big increase in vaping among young people, making e-cigarettes the most popular tobacco product in the US among students.
  • Worrying numbers: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that in the U.S., 2.1 million students (7.7%) used e-cigarettes by 2023, including 550,000 middle school students (4.6%).
  • Serious future problems: These devices are causing a whole generation to become addicted to nicotine, and the long-term health effects could be very bad.

A Study on the Youth Vaping Influenced by Marketing and Psychological Elements

Teen Targeted Marketing Strategies

  • Sweet Flavours: The makers of e-cigarettes and other vaping-related products do this by luring young users to them by flavour such as strawberry, cotton candy, and lemonade. These kids’ sweet flavors have come out, kids are more likely to try these products and possibly get addicted using them.

Cognitive impairments of children

  • Early exposure: Kids today are often introduced to digital devices and social media at a very young age. This early exposure can make them more vulnerable to problems and reactions, even before adulthood.
  • Focus group: The highest risk age group is between the ages of 10 and 20. Companies often use attractive images and appeals to target their advertising to this group.

Effects on social and emotional health

  • Peer influence and social acceptance: Many teens start vaping to feel like they belong with their friends and want to be part of a group. Colorful advertising and marketing make it seem as if these products will make them happy and raise their social status.
  • Feeling lonely and cut off: Kids who vape feel more alone and isolated than kids who don’t, suggesting that these factors can have a greater impact on their emotions.

Impact of modern smoking substitutes on adolescent health

Physical health issues

  • Modern smoking alternatives, such as e-cigarettes and mechanical cigarettes, can cause serious physical health problems.
  • These include lung damage and the condition where EVALI, which is lung injury associated with e-cigarette or vaping use, has now been reported several times

Mental health problems

  • Research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies suggests vaping can be harmful to mental health.
  • Frequent use of e-cigarettes is associated with problems such as depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidal ideation among adolescents

Reason for dependency

  • Nicotine amounts: E-cigarettes and smoking tools have a lot of nicotine, and we know that nicotine can make people want to keep using it.
  • Nicotine addiction mostly impacts people up to around 25 years old, because during this time, the brain is more easily affected by it.
  • Growing Older: Teenagers and young people are in a phase of life where nicotine can change how their brain works and is made up.
  • This makes it easier for them to get addicted and raises the risk of them having issues with using other drugs later on.
  • Peer group: Friends who approve of vaping and parents who smoke are major factors in susceptibility to smoking.

Risks of electronic cigarettes and vaping devices

Nicotine addiction and nicotine intake

  • Youth nicotine dependence: Starting in November 2022, the JAMA Network Open study looked at more than 150,000 young people.
  • It showed that many of them use their first tobacco product five minutes after waking up, indicating a high level of nicotine use among young people.
  • Design for addiction: E-cigarettes are designed to increase addiction.
  • Newer products, especially those developed after 2015, use benzoic acid to facilitate the inhalation of more nicotine, making it more addictive than regular cigarettes and older e-cigarettes

Use of other drugs

  • Other uses: E-cigarettes are also used to inhale powerful drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
  • Many people think that vaping only includes harmless hot and flavored liquids, without realizing the serious risks.
  • Future consequences: The belief that vaping is harmless can lead to long-term problems with drug use.
  • E-cigarettes are especially dangerous because they quickly deliver high doses of nicotine to users, which can lead to addiction and not push people to use more dangerous drugs.

Conclusion

New devices on the market that promise to be a safer alternative to smoking have led to an increase in vaping addiction and mental health issues among young people and this now requires tighter regulation den and some controls to overcome the public health problem.

Source:The Hindu

Mains Practice Question:

Analyse the impact of e-cigarettes and vaping on the mental health of young people, especially children and adolescents.