Yolonda Richardson, President and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

Health advocates are concerned about the high number of kids using flavored e-cigarettes, which deliver large amounts of nicotine and can quickly addict them. They are urging the FDA to eliminate all flavored e-cigarettes to protect children. Over 2.5 million kids are still using these dangerous products, and urgent action is needed. Parents, schools, and the FDA all have a role to play in addressing this issue. The FDA has the authority to remove these products, and parents should talk to their kids about the dangers. It is important to break the cycle of addiction and prevent another generation of nicotine addicts. Teachers and school nurses should treat vaping as an illegal product and inform the appropriate authorities and parents. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids provides resources for parents and educators. Kids of course are getting ready to head on back to school and health advocates are raising the alarm that youth e-cigarette use remains unfortunately a serious problem and are urging the FDA to protect kids by eliminating all flavored e-cigarettes. Latest government surveys found that over 2.5 million kids are still using these very dangerous e-cigarettes, 85% of them using flavored products, deliver massive doses of nicotine as you know, which can quickly addict kids. To end the youth crisis here, health advocates are calling on the FDA to clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes and my guest who is joining me this morning with some more information about this very important, critical initiative is Yolanda Richardson, she is the president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Yolanda, good morning, welcome to WRNJ Radio in New Jersey, how are you doing today? I'm doing great this morning, thank you Bert. Thank you again for taking some time to talk to us here today. Sounds like a huge problem, anytime you have 2.5 million kids that are doing something so unhealthy, the time to act on something like this is now because I've always believed that kids that have bad habits become adults that have bad habits, so this is the time to address this very serious concern. Yeah, you're absolutely right Bert and thank you for that really good introduction of the issue and the concern, 2.5 million high school students and middle school students who smoke or who use e-cigarettes are 2.5 million more than we need, for sure, and so we just wanted to be here this morning to talk with your audience and you about the need for really urgent action. The time is now, the FDA has had plenty of time to really assert its authority and while it's waiting, while it's delaying, these different products are still hitting the market and they're doing so illegally. Yeah, and it sounds like something Yolanda, that it's going to take the FDA, it's going to take state involvement in New Jersey here, probably the county and municipal level will have to get involved in terms of eliminating all these flavored e-cigarettes and it's something that, you know what, we want it to be one side, a legislative issue, at the same time you want parents to get involved and be supportive of these efforts as well and that's an important role that the parent plays in this. It absolutely is critical that, you know, we need multiple layers of action. FDA is the most important, though, because it has the regulatory authority to remove these products and as I said, they're illegal if they're on the market now. But you're right, parents, schools, administrators can also be helpful in this respect and parents just need to talk to their kids. I think there is an underlying assumption that because they are not cigarettes that they're less harmful, but in fact, we know they are as harmful. The U.S. Surgeon General has indicated as such and it creates, unfortunately for all of us, if it's not clamped down, another generation of nicotine addicts and that's something we just don't need to have. Yeah, it's really crazy. I mean, I grew up in the 1980s when there was a lot of messaging that was out there, Yolanda, about the dangers of cigarettes. I mean, obviously, we didn't have vaping and other alternatives like you have today and other products that are out there. You would think that by now we would have at least created a generation of non-smokers, but it still proliferates and I guess when you have parents who smoke, you naturally have a possibility of leading towards kids who smoke. So there's got to be a way to break this chain as we kind of go through the decades here. Yeah, absolutely. And we have more tools than we have over the course of the last several decades, the most important which is to grant FDA authority to act and there should be no reason for them to sort of move forward and assert its regulatory authority and get these off the market. I think parents in schools, as you indicate, can do more, but really that's where the rubber hits the road. We've made so much progress in terms of teen smoking, the rates are at 2%, but if we don't act, we'll be having, again, another generation of addicts because we will have allowed e-cigarettes to stay on the market and to attract kids with all kinds of flavors, banana, bubble gum, cotton candy, when we have all the tools we need to stop this. I can only imagine if they had something that was s'mores flavored. When I was a kid, Yolanda, who knows what kind of issues I would be having nowadays, but my guess is Yolanda Richardson this morning, President and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, you know, back to school time is upon us. It's about keeping kids safe, this is really what it is, getting information in the hands of parents. It could potentially be a challenging conversation, Yolanda, for a smoker parent to have with a kid who they don't want to follow in those same steps. How do you break that ice? How do you begin that conversation? It could be a challenging one for parents, I'm sure, but how do you take that first step? Yeah, but I've worked all over the world and one of the things that's universal is that no one wants kids to be smoking, no one wants kids to become addicts. So it doesn't have to be complicated. I think parents just need to sit with their kids and just tell them about the harm. They need to be able to recognize the signs of e-cigarette use. They're not unlike other signs of addiction. You'll see kids' sleeping patterns and moves and all of that changing. It's not a complicated conversation. It's just the ability to tell kids, this is not harmful. It affects your ability in many, many different ways that are not at all helpful to you. And then to just rely on the tools and resources that are out there. Certainly they can go to our website at tobaccofreekids.org and there are other resources that are readily available in order to help them have this important conversation with their kids. And then they just need to be vigilant. I think so. And it's definitely one that has to happen. As we wrap up here, Yolanda, and maybe you have the information, maybe you don't, and maybe this is something that might even vary from state to state. Is there an obligation, legal, moral, or otherwise, for a teacher or a school nurse who maybe catches a kid vaping behind a schoolyard or vaping in a school bathroom or something? Is there any legal steps? Is there anything even just that it's the right thing to do, things in place that a teacher or a nurse is obligated to do? Do they go to their parents and say, hey, we caught your kid doing this? Have we reached that point yet where that sort of reporting format and formula is in place? I mean, I think school nurses are an important part of what we need to do. And we've been working really closely with nursing associations, school nursing associations, to make sure that they do have the information they need. But they should treat it like any other illegal product in the school. They should make sure that the right authorities within the school are informed and that parents are informed. And then they should just work together to make sure that the kids who they do find who are vaping get the support they need to stop. Good, good. That's how it gets done. More information about your group, Yolanda. I could Google campaign for tobacco-free kids and get more info. That's correct. And thank you for that. Okay. Yolanda, thank you so much for the time today and great speaking with you. You as well. Have a good morning.