Microdose: Teen Vaping Risks and How to Talk to Your Kids

With fruit-flavored vapes becoming more accessible, what should parents know about the risks for kids and teens? We break down the immediate and potential long-term effects of vaping and share how parents can talk to their kids about making informed choices without simply telling them what not to do.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome back to Practical Parenting, the podcast that helps empower parents in the trenches, find joy in the process, and thrive through it all. I'm Christina Wales here with my co-host, Dr. Terry Nawyn, Chair of Pediatrics at GBMC Healthcare. So in early May, the FDA authorized the sale of fruit-flavored vapes. We're already shaking our head, and and their justification is that these products are designed for adults, but experts like the one I have here disagree. Um, and that say that the approval um really poses a risk to youth. So, Dr. Nguyen, what are the risks and why is this decision so harmful for our kids?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

What are the risks? Smoking, any kind of smoking?

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Okay, no, that's kind of a dumb question, but yeah, I'm just setting the stage for you.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Thank you so much. Um okay. Um, number one, um, any we already know, right? Nicotine causes lung cancer. There. So any form of nicotine, whether it's through a cigarette or through a vape, okay, is long-term going to increase your risk of lung cancer.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

John Hamm taught us that on Mad Men.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah. Okay, so there, that's my foundation. Now we're gonna go to e-cigarettes or vapes or vaping pens. In order to turn something from a liquid state into a vapor state, that's a lot of freaking more chemicals, okay? Um, and it's much more concentrated. If it's nicotine or it's marijuana that's coming in your vape pen, much more concentrated. Okay. And um so there's more chemicals that are damaging to your lungs, much more concentration of whatever it is that you're smoking. And then we're gonna make it flavored so nicely that you're gonna really like it. So we are enhancing the ability of addiction and more physical, physiologic, medical damage to your lungs. There's a chemical in um, it's called diazetyl, and it gives the vapes a very buttery flavor, and it's you know, it's just it goes down smooth, right? And and you don't have the smell of cigarettes or necessarily weed that you would if you're smoking a joint. So, and now it's fruit flavored, so it's masked everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

So is you might not know this, but the diacyle that makes it this specific flavor, does that make it worse than than just regular smoking vape? Or no, it's it's in all the vapes. It just makes it more attractive.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yes. Okay. Okay, and I I I don't know all of the um uh science. Science behind, I mean, we'll need a chemist in here. Yeah. But the basic idea is more damaging chemicals are going into your lungs. So what happens when you vape over a long period of time? You are gonna increase your risk of chronic lung disease later on. But here's the thing there's there's immediate possible effects as well as long-term effects. Okay. So the long-term effect is every time, oh, the vapes, besides the more chemicals, it's through this metal pen, right? So this metal pen is also throwing some, you know, microscopic metal particles into the vape mix that go into your lungs that will never leave again, okay? Because they in a microscop on a microscopic level, um, these metal particles are small enough to get in, but big enough to never get booted out, right? Now imagine all these millions of metal particles in your lungs over many years and decades of vaping use. Okay. What happens when your body sees a foreign body is it forms a wall around it. It isolates it because it wants to get it out of your system. So it has an inflammatory response. And guess what? You have all these walls in your pink, bubbly alveoli in your lungs. Those are the things that help you exchange carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen to help you breathe. Well, now you have these walls around all these particles. You have less of the um ability for your alveoli to, you know, um transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, but your lungs become stiff. When your lungs become stiff, they don't exchange anything, they don't do anything that they're supposed to do. So, what do you think you're gonna have? Trouble breathing. You might you might actually end up needing a lung transplant. Oh wow. Yeah. So I'm worried about that. And I'm worried about that for my patients when they're no longer my patients 20, 30 years down the line. Yeah. Okay. It's called pulmonary fibrosis. It's hardening of your lungs. Okay, so that's the long-term effect.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

But long-term effects don't really bother young adults or adolescents. They're like, that's never gonna happen to me. Yeah. Okay, how about the immediate? So the immediate, if you're just you know, vaping for funsies with your friend at a party, one of the things that could happen is um popcorn lung. You have immediate damage, and you this may be your first or second time vaping. Okay. Yeah, and it would be bronchiolitis obliterans, and that's the popcorn lung, okay? And that is the uh what they call it, e-vale, um, e V-A-L-I is the acronym, and it is e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury, and it is vaping associated pulmonary injury. Um, there since February of 2020, there have been more than 2,800 hospitalizations for this, which is popcorn lung, uh, bronchiolitis obliterans, and 68 deaths from e-valley across the United States. Wow. Okay. And the numbers have uh this actually, I'm quoting something that was updated uh in May of 2026 from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So what exactly causes that? Do you know?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

It's the chemicals. Remember that diacetyl and the gazillion other um, you know, um chemicals that are involved in turning something from a liquid state into that vaporous state.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I arguably more than that number of people are using vapes, though. So, like, is there a risk factor or is it kind of just random? Just random. Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yeah, okay. So I have definitely experienced anecdotally um patients, maybe not my patients, but patients in my practice who've had this, you know, healthy. Otherwise, no past medical history, very healthy, um late adolescent, young adult, no prior medical history whatsoever, no lung disease, no heart disease, um, vape and end up in the ICU because their lungs so injury you do respiratory support. There's nothing that you can really do.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

So do they are they living with this then?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

No, we hope that your lungs can heal. So you get supportive care in the intensive care unit while your lungs are healing. So you're probably on ventilatory support.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And then I guess we don't really know what the long-term effects of having popcorn lung are.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Because vapes have only been in use since 2007 and we are in 2026. So we really don't know. Remember what I was hypothesizing for the future of this pulmonary fibrosis because your lungs are hardened. Right. We haven't seen it yet because we haven't had long enough of a history of widespread use of it. Okay. So I hope that that is enough to convince some young adults that that might not be the best choice. And I'm saying this on a podcast, and the parents are probably horrified, but I tell my parents ahead of time. I say, I am not going to tell your children or your young adults to not do something. Because I feel like I am what's the word? I'm nudging them on or I'm daring them. So I say, Hey, you might be exposed to some of these things. I want to help you make good choices because I know you're really smart and I know with the right information, you're going to make great choices. Okay. So may I share this with you? Ask permission. Okay. Don't just spew out all your medical knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So that that's what you how you would suggest parents approach it, also?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, that's how I approach it.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Right. And we have a lot of commercials all over the place about vapes. So take that opportunity. Okay. So take the opportunity and then engage in the conversation. And there's no parent or pediatrician who really wants their kids to do any of these substances, right? But I'm going to have to give it like what is a less harmful way of experimenting. Because we know our um our adolescents and young adults are experimenting. Yeah. Flavored fruit flavors, they've done so much marketing study, so many marketing studies. Okay. So kids and young adults, and even adults, they're so driven to anything that's fruit flavored. Yeah. It's, you know, it just hits the right spots on your tongue, in your, you know, in your sensory process. This is what draws in kids. They are definitely targeting um, you know, these flavored e-cigarettes and having it fruit flavored. They are targeting our children and our young adults. And we need to stand up and say, no. I am beyond exasperated and upset that this was passed by the FDA. Okay. That's an assault on our future generation of healthy people.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

So dig deep, find your inner Karen, and go talk to your legislator.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Exactly. Okay. And just educate your kids, but share with them, but say, ask permission. Hey, I would hate, you know, what I say to my patients and my kids, I'm like, go out, party, have fun. I know you're gonna do some things you're not supposed to do. Please come back in one piece in the morning. Yeah. I'd like to not read about you in the headlines. I'd like to see, hear the door click at whatever time you come in.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Come from it from a space of care for them.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Okay. I think that hits the message a little bit easier. Instead of, I know best, this is what you should do, and this is what you shouldn't do.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Which has never ever worked ever. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

And the other thing for parents who might think weed is not that big of a deal, I'm going to tell you all the weed that's available, marijuana, I apologize, that's available now is much more highly concentrated than it what was available to parents who were growing up in the 70s, 80s, even 90s, probably. Okay. So there is a difference. Back then, the concentration of marijuana in a joint much lower. Now it's like 90, 90, 90 to 99%, like pure THC. Yeah. Right? And oh, one other thing about vapes and marijuana. Um, how so the concentration in a vape form of marijuana, it can be as much as three to five joints in one liquid vial of marijuana vape. I don't know. That's pretty high. You're gonna be another planet. It might trigger a panic attack, by the way, also. That's really scary. Feeling like you're gonna die and you're racing and your heart won't stop beating. Yeah, no, that's that's not no fun at all. We can talk about marijuana.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

I don't need weed to feel anxious. I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

So, um, yes, one of the side effects of marijuana can be panic attacks. And if you have a predisposition already for anxiety, it can set off the worst panic attack of your life. Okay. And marijuana, no matter what form you take it in, can also trigger a first-time psychotic break in people who have that genetic predisposition. Because most psychotic breaks or the appearance of psychiatric diseases happen in the most vulnerable time of your brain develop in into adulthood is late adolescence or early, um, early adulthood, early 20s. Marijuana can do that for you. Yay, your first psychotic break, you're hearing and seeing things that nobody else in the same room with you is hearing or seeing. And you are paralyzed or you are frantic. I cannot imagine that that's a good feeling.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah. Well, yes, I mean, I know you already said this. It could appear scary, but it's important for parents to know this information so they can articulate it correctly to the kids. And, you know, you gave us some great framing. So thanks so much. And um, hopefully, we've empowered parents with some information. So we'll we'll see you in the next one.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yep. Thank you so much.