E-cigarettes in the classroom: chaos and alarm level red for schools!

E-cigarettes in the classroom: chaos and alarm level red for schools!

Oberösterreich, Österreich - In recent years, the image of substance consumption among young people in Austria has changed drastically. E-cigarettes have now overtaken the classic tobacco cigarettes. More than a third of the 14 to 16 year olds in Upper Austria consumed e-cigarettes last month, as a current study shows. According to kosmo.at , the proportion of 15-year-olds in Austria is 21 percent, which remains among the numbers from Germany (24 percent).

The situation is described as problematic by educators. A headmaster reported that students use e-cigarettes during class, which leads to an overwhelming teaching staff. Inquiries that should have led to age verification among retailers of e-cigarettes remained unanswered, as the green member of the state parliament Anne-Sophie Bauer found in a self-experiment. In Upper Austria, test purchases have so far only been carried out for alcohol and tobacco products, which further increases the problem. She called for increased youth protection controls, especially in vape shops and on the Internet.

growing concern about substance consumption

a new investigation of WHO/Europe worrying trends in substance consumption. Over 50 percent of the 15-year-olds surveyed stated that they had already consumed alcohol. The results also show worrying figures for e-cigarettes: 32 percent of 15-year-olds have already smoked e-cigarettes, 20 percent in the last 30 days. These developments lead to an alarm, especially since cannabis use in 15-year-olds from 14 percent in 2018 to 12 percent in 2022.

The use of nicotine products, including nicotine bags, has risen sharply in the past two years and has overcompensated the decline in cigarette consumption. According to information from ifp.at , girls also show equivalent behavior and sometimes overtake the boys. This is done in parallel to an increase in considerable drunkenness among young people. It is particularly alarming that the gender differences decrease, which means that girls are increasingly equalizing or even exceeding them in substance consumption.

urgent need for action

substance consumption in adolescents requires urgent measures. It is recommended to pursue targeted prevention strategies to reduce consumption. These include the increase in consumption taxes, restrictions on the availability of nicotine and tobacco products as well as alcohol, and the ban on aroma substances in nicotine products. Advertising and sales promotion in the media must also be controlled more strictly to protect young people's health.

Rainer Schmidbauer, a search expert, warned that continuous inhaling can lead to a stronger stress on the body when vapen. The company faces the challenge of getting both the use of e-cigarettes and the general distribution of substances among young people under control and finding responsible solutions.