FINAL FINAL FINAL (help)

The Alliance SCCLA Escape the Vape Team aims to raise awareness about the dangers of vaping. They gathered data from a survey showing high rates of vaping among students. They conducted their own research on local businesses that sell vaping products. They created anti-vape posters and made TikTok videos to spread their message. They interviewed a health teacher who discussed the health risks associated with vaping, including nicotine addiction, respiratory issues, cardiovascular effects, and brain development. They also interviewed a counselor and track coach who highlighted the negative impact of vaping on athletic performance and overall well-being. The team hopes to educate young people about the risks and encourage them to seek healthier alternatives. We are the Alliance SCCLA Escape the Vape Team. Hi, my name is Amy Acosta. I'm a junior and I've been in SCCLA for two years. Hi, my name is Alexis Lipsack and I am a sophomore and I have been in SCCLA for two years. Hi, my name is Kenley Jelnik. I'm a freshman and this is my first year in SCCLA. Hi, I'm Posh Cody. I'm a freshman and I've been in SCCLA for one year. Hi, I'm Silvia Cousins. I am a sophomore and this is my first year as an SCCLA member. Our project is called Escape the Vape. Our mission is to bring awareness to the problem of vaping and the negative health effects that vaping can cause. Vaping is an epidemic for young adults and we want to help people stop or avoid vaping completely. Our community partners were Panhandle Public Health and several high school teachers at Alliance High School. Panhandle Public Health provided valuable data from the most recent SHARP survey and our high school teachers provided insights and knowledge from their viewpoints as athletics coaches, trainers, and health teachers. The research question we focused on was, how can we educate young adults on the negative health effects of vaping? The first thing we did was to contact Danelle Visser at Panhandle Public Health. During a phone call in November, we explained our project to her and she sent us the most recent data from the 2021 SHARP survey. When analyzing the data, we discovered that 11% of 8th graders, 15% of 10th graders, and 25% of 12th graders were actively using vaping products at the time of the survey in 2021. This data made it real to us about how many people our age vape and we knew we had to do something to spread our Escape the Vape message. The next thing we did was to conduct our own research on how many businesses in our community of Alliance sell vaping products. One day after school, we drove to every gas station and convenience store to count how many display and sell vaping products. Of our 10 businesses, we visited 5 of them clearly display and actively sell vaping products. This is 50%. To raise awareness within our school community, we designed and put up anti-vape posters all around Alliance High School. We then created an account on TikTok called Alliance SCCLA. We wrote and produced a TikTok video about anti-vaping, which we posted on February 23, 2024. It currently has 15 followers and 88 views. Since then, we have made several other videos that follow current trends and also bring more awareness to the dangers of vaping. And now we will interview Izzy Thompson, the FAFS teacher and the SCCLA advisor. Hello, I'm Mrs. Izzy Thompson and I am the health teacher at the Alliance High School. Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about vaping and what I know about it. So, Alliance has made some steps in the positive direction when it comes to vaping as we have added vape detectors into our bathrooms. We are really hoping that this will help stop kids from vaping in general or at least at school. So, vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or a similar device. And it has been very popular in the last few years. While some perceive vaping as a safer alternative to traditional smoking, there is a significant health concern associated with it. And yes, vaping, you do not get the smell from the cigarettes like you do off of vape, but they are saying it is way worse on your lungs than a traditional cigarette would be. So, nicotine addiction is the first one I want to talk about. And many vape liquids contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine addiction can lead to dependency, withdrawal symptoms, and an increased risk of using other tobacco products. Next is respiratory issues. Vaping can irritate the lungs and airways, leading to coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. So, long-term vaping will increase respiratory problems and even have more concerns, even like bronchitis and pneumonia. With having weaker lungs, you are more apt to catch more and have those lung issues. So, the cardiovascular effects, nicotine and other chemicals found in vape liquids can increase the heart rate and blood pressure and potentially leading to cardiovascular problems such as hypertension and increased risk of heart disease. So, the chemical exposure, which the vape liquid contains different chemicals, can be also very harming. Heating these chemicals can produce harmful byproducts, which are known to also be toxic to the respiratory system. The impact on the brain development, nicotine exposure during adolescence is when we really are seeing a lot of these high school kids. It's like a trend that they're going through, and they're vaping. But it can harm the brain development, affect cognition, attention, and even mood regulation. Vaping among young people may also increase the risk of developing addiction to other substances. So, what they're saying is you're seeing kids start out with vaping, and they're getting that great feeling they think from vaping, so then they want to move on to harder things. So, you know, maybe the marijuana or even harder drugs, they're more apt to try these things. So, unknown long-term effects. So, you know, vaping hasn't been around for a long, long time, so they're not always real sure what they could be. But there are studies that are going on because there are definitely long-term effects with the use of electronic cigarettes. So, I think there have even been reports of injuries just from the device. They're malfunctioning and causing injuries, even exploding, causing burns. So, it's not just even the inhalation. I mean, all around, these devices are very, very dangerous, and we really need to get out of this trend and have kids stop using these products. It's just not a healthy lifestyle. Overall, it is perceived as a less harmful alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes, but it definitely poses significant health risks, especially when used by young people or nonsmokers. It's essential to weigh the risks carefully and make informed decisions about vaping, even when you get to the age where it is legal. This is not always a great decision, or even alternative to smoking. It's not healthy. And now we will interview Nate Lonick, the school counselor and the head Alliance High School track coach. Hello, and my name is Nate Lonick here at Alliance High School, and I am a counselor along with the head track and field coach. The girls have asked me to kind of talk about vaping awareness and the effects that it may have on students and especially athletes that I see in the track and field program. So as we dive into it, there are lots of different reasons that vaping is not good for kids, and some of those are the decreased lung function and capacity that the vaping takes away from these athletes and then affecting their performance, which then you see the kid go down in times or distances or heights, per se, and it becomes a mental struggle for those kids that aren't performing where they maybe have in the past or they haven't really thought about what the vaping may do to the inside of their body that will then affect their performances on the track. We can also see that in the classroom as well, where these vapes and what they do to the body and the mind kind of takes away from what they've produced in the past. The effectiveness, the concentration, the focus, the motivation, those things that the kids need to perform at the highest level on the track or in the classroom, once these kids are hooked on the vapes and the vaping, it takes away from some of that. The kids start trying to figure out when they're going to get their next fix or how they're going to get that nicotine hit off of the vape, and unfortunately it takes away from the learning, the education that's taking place, and they start focusing on the wrong thing and the motivation to get done with class or maybe not even compete at their best because they're thinking about what it is that they need in terms of getting that vape in their hands. Unfortunately, it doesn't do the kids any justice for themselves or their performances, whether it be, like I said, in the classroom or on the track. You can look at the negative health impacts in terms of lung damage, cardiovascular problems, inflammation, some of those things that the studies are just starting to show that none of that stuff is going to help you be a better athlete. Essentially, when it comes to running, you've got to have a great lung capacity to break down the oxygen and the lactic acid and stuff like that, and vaping just takes away from the body's capacity to do that. Then you also want to look at the legal and ethical concerns in terms of vaping with these kids nowadays. One, it's illegal. Kids shouldn't be doing it. How they're coming up with these vapes and how they're getting them for minors to show up with them, whether they're paying somebody to get them or they're taking their families, aunts, uncles, moms, dads, brothers, sisters. The consequences are you're in trouble. You get suspended. Now you can't compete for a while if you're caught with them. Studies are starting to show that secondhand vaping is just as bad on you, and the effects are just the same as secondhand smoking and stuff like that. So vaping awareness, we're trying to do a little bit more. Posters around the school, the FCCLA kids are talking about it, presenting this podcast, trying to just make kids aware that when they do these types of things, it's not going to solve the problem that they're trying to handle with it, whether it being cool and trying to fit in with their friends. Maybe there's something going on in their life that they just, instead of handling it and talking to somebody about it, they just go to the vape and try to fix it that way and try to just eliminate it from their thoughts. Whereas they just need to maybe find a trusted adult, talk to a teacher, a coach, a mentor, another friend, somebody that can kind of walk them through whatever it is that they're struggling and allow the student to maybe come up with a different coping mechanism outside of using the vape and essentially hurting themselves. Vaping is a relatively new thing that the kids really don't know the effects of it too much because the studies are just starting to show up. But when you dig into the studies, you start seeing some of that, like I said earlier, decreased lung function, the coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath. And like I said, whether it be in the classroom or out on the track, it's not a good thing for these kids and it's affecting them in negative ways. And we're hoping that maybe if we bring some awareness that they have these negative effects that students will choose something different in the future. Maybe they will go seek out a counselor, talk to a trusted adult, a teacher, a coach, or maybe even lean on a friend that can help them with whatever struggles that they might be going through that they're using the vape as a coping mechanism. Finally, we created a pamphlet for our state SCCLA table that educates people about the dangers of vaping and offers positive solutions to help people escape the vape. We would like to thank the Nebraska State SCCLA Association, the Nebraska 4-H Extension, and the Youth Health Equity Project for funding and supporting our research project.