Exciting uptake on NEO webinars
Not everything related to Covid-19 has been bad.
This year, restrictions in all states resulted in our NEO programs coming to a standstill. We just weren’t able to travel to deliver them, aside from a few windows when restrictions eased.
Instead of simply waiting for the situation to improve, we got busy developing webinars, specifically on the topic of vaping to educate teachers. The uptake was so good that we are planning on continuing with the webinar model, and expanding content next year.
Teen Challenge Tasmania director Tanya Cavanagh has been researching the issue of vaping for years now, and was concerned that many teachers and parents were still unaware of the dangers and deception of its use.
“Vaping is targeted at young people. The flavours, the bright colours, the way social media influencers are endorsing them and showing them how to make cool shapes with the vapors — it’s totally aimed at deception,” she said.
“Some of them come in tampon shaped boxes, in the shape of lipgloss, a watch, a pen, or a highlighter. There’s a vape brand that’s actually called Hyde. That’s exactly what it’s about. A whole culture of hiding vape use and deceiving people.”
Tanya said more needed to be done to turn the tide of misinformation.
“The myth out there is that there’s no harm in vaping. For example, if you’re just using the flavours without nicotine, it’s just water vapor and can’t harm you.
“However, we know that to have copious amounts of vapor, there must be oil and when that’s superheated it turns the contents into a different chemical compound than it should be. You’ve got the equivalent of engine coolant, or substances used in chemical warfare — chemicals that cause acid burn to the lungs.”
This chemical burning to the lungs has resulted in a whole new disease called EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury), defined by Harvard Medical School as “an inflammatory response in the lungs triggered by inhaled substances… It may occur as pneumonia, damage to tiny air sacs in the lungs (alveoli), or an inflammatory reaction called fibrinous pneumonitis.”
Teen Challenge Tasmania recently facilitated a free vaping webinar across schools throughout Australia. For the morning session, 48 teachers signed in to the online webinar and the chat function was busy with questions and discussion. Teachers were asking if their colleagues could register for the next webinar, because the content was so illuminating.
The evening session only had 15 registered on the day, but 87 teachers ended up attending online based on the recommendation of attendees at the morning session.
“It was a really good time with teachers,” Tanya said.
“Most were taking notes furiously and I shared the recording with them. From those webinars, we’ve had some new connections with schools and the impetus to keep presenting these webinars in the future.”
Feedback from the webinar was encouraging. “I was deeply concerned with the level of deception that is included in the production of vaping products,” one teacher said. Another said it was illuminating to hear the side effects of vaping. “We have seen (the side effects) in our school but haven’t connected the dots… it’s horrifying… the effect it has on the lungs. Also the marketing and ease of obtaining these products.” Yet another participant said it was eye-opening to discover that “vaping is now a part of the teenage culture, driven by marketing giants and iconic figures.”
In 2022, Teen Challenge Tasmania will continue with the webinar format, developing content to bring to light the harms of vaping so that teachers and parents can help young people make good choices. The next webinar will include a panel of experts from the teaching, legal and health professions — some from the US who have been dealing with the issue for some time already.