Local health officials had recently been thrilled to see smoking rates among Park County youth drop into single digit percentages.

“We were really excited,” said Healthy Park County Coordinator Wendy Morris, adding, “our numbers were great.”

But now, there’s been a massive surge in vaping. The practice involves an electronic nicotine delivery system, which heats a mixture of flavoring, nicotine and other chemicals into a vapor that can be inhaled.

Sometimes called e-cigarettes, e-hookahs or vape pens, or referred to by the brand name JUUL, “they’re known by many different names” and “they all look a little bit different,” Morris told Park County commissioners in October.

By any name or form, the devices are becoming a serious concern for health officials.

“What we’re finding is there are youth that are using tobacco that may have never picked up a cigarette in their life. They’ll be like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to smoke, but JUULing, I mean, it’s watermelon [flavored], it’s berry ...,’” Morris said.

One Juul pod contains the same amount of addictive nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, according to the anti-tobacco Truth Initiative, and Morris said some teens use multiple pods a day.

While there is evidence indicating that vaping is less harmful than traditional smoking, a growing body of cases indicate that it, too, can carry life-threatening consequences. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says there’s been an “outbreak” of vaping-related lung injuries, with some 2,409 cases and 52 deaths reported as of Dec. 10.

“People need to understand that e-cigarettes are potentially dangerous to your health,” Dr. Michael Blaha of John Hopkins Medicine said in a recent piece for the organization, adding, “You’re exposing yourself to all kinds of chemicals that we don’t yet understand and that are probably not safe.”

The Wyoming Department of Health confirmed the state’s first vaping-related lung illness in a young adult in Uinta County in September; they were diagnosed with “severe lung disease.” Around that same time, a 19-year-old Powell man was hospitalized with vaping-related pneumonitis and developed sepsis, according to friends and family members. In a widely shared Facebook post, the man’s mother urged fellow parents to talk to their children about the dangers of vaping.

Data gathered by the CDC indicated that one in five high schoolers (nearly 21 percent) and one in 20 middle schoolers (not quite 5 percent) were using e-cigarettes in 2018. Those figures were up significantly from 2017.

While the hard data is still being tabulated in Wyoming, Morris said there are anecdotal signs that vaping has continued to increase among local youth; for instance, school officials around the county have confiscated drawers full of devices, Morris said.

“With the popularity of vaping, we are now seeing just … I hate to use this word, it has been used with this topic, but [an] epidemic,” she said. “It has become quite the craze amongst our young people.”

Morris suggested that the wide variety of fruity and other flavors has helped drive demand.

“If we don’t think the tobacco industry is marketing to our children or our youth or our young adults, then that’s a little naive,” she told commissioners.

Healthy Park County hopes to cut down on vaping among local youth — including preventing teens from ever starting to use. Part of those efforts have involved educating parents, teachers, coaches and health professionals about the practice.

Though the focus is on young people, Healthy Park County will also work with adults who are seeking to quit vaping. Pregnant women are of particular concern, because nicotine is harmful for fetuses.

Although it’s not a Federal Drug Administration-approved method, vaping is sometimes pitched as a way to quit smoking.

“And while there may be some — some — facts to that, it has not been proven,” Morris said, “and what we’re finding are that sometimes people are doing both [smoking and vaping].”

Meanwhile, the Wyoming Department of Health is continuing to work with local and federal officials to identify the substances or products linked to the recent outbreak of illness.

The CDC recently named vitamin E acetate as a “chemical of concern.” However, “many different substances and product sources are still under investigation,” the agency says on its website, “and it may be that there is more than one cause of this outbreak.”

Regardless of what the investigation finds, “e-cigarette, or vaping, products should never be used by youths, young adults or women who are pregnant,” the CDC says.

As for all other adults, the CDC warns against taking up e-cigarettes.

“There is no safe tobacco product,” it says.

The CDC also specifically recommends that people do not use vaping products that contain THC or buy products from informal sources like friends or family or from online dealers.

Adults who continue to vape should “carefully monitor themselves,” the CDC says, and immediately see a healthcare provider if they develop symptoms like a cough, shortness of breath or chest pain; nausea, vomiting or diarrhea; or fatigue, fever or weight loss.

“It is important to follow current public health recommendations to avoid illness,” Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and state epidemiologist, said in a September news release.

More information and updated case counts can be found on the CDC site at www.bit.ly/2lWykRe.

For information about quitting tobacco and/or vape products, visit www.quitwyo.org or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

(Photo of man vaping courtesy of Vaping360.com)