13 year-olds wearing nicotine patches: the extent of our schools’ vaping epidemic

Teachers warn vaping is set to rob a whole generation of students from holding a job as they are unable to work for more than an hour without needing a nicotine hit.

A seminar in Bunbury heard that already employers were already calling schools to complain of students sent on vocational experience that go missing and are unable to work for required periods due to vaping.

The seminar at the Dalyellup College on Tuesday, had WA Country Health Service warning parents and teachers on the increasing health risks associated with vaping, with teachers desperate to find a way to help students.

Bunbury teachers said multiple students were caught daily vaping, hiding vapes in their scarves or sleeves, and exhaling the fumes into their shirts during class, with fears the devices could explode from overheating when concealed in clothing.

The teachers also said they were receiving numerous calls from trades and work places complaining of their vocational students vaping onsite.

“They’re getting away with it in schools, they’re going into the workplace, we’ve had phone calls back to the school saying students got caught vaping on the job, they sneaked into the toilet,” a Bunbury teacher said.

“Students think if they’re getting away with it here, they’re getting away with it in the work place.”

School health nurse and and Country Health Service South West representative Naomi Pedrochi said that students were unknowingly inhaling the same amount of nicotine as 10-15 cartons of cigarettes, as well as heavy metals due to the unsafe manufacturing of the metal cartridges leaking into their lungs.

Teachers told the seminar that they had seen a decline in participation in schools sports, with many students dropping out of football teams mid-season because they no longer have the lung capacity to play a full game of football.

“So getting caught with a vape at my school results in a mandatory suspension, and on the first day I had six referrals on my desk,” she said.

“The first kid was like ‘I’m going to be the best drug dealer in town’, but the next four kids literally thought that vaping was just flavoured water and they were quite upset about it.

“I saw all these referrals on my desk and thought ‘they’ve kind of missed the point here, we need to educate these kids first.’”

Nurses like Ms Pedrochi are seeing an increase in students needing help quitting addiction, with the only way of treating a nicotine addiction for students this young being wearing nicotine patches.

“I talk to kids who vape before they go to bed at night, who wake up at two o’clock in the morning and vape, as soon as they get up,” Ms Pedrochi said.

The seminar will be online in a Microsoft Teams session open to the public on Monday, October 23 at 6pm.

For more information visit the My Health South West website and Facebook page.