New AHA initiative targets vaping, nicotine addiction in youth
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PHILADELPHIA — The American Heart Association unveiled a new three-pronged initiative focusing on new research, public advocacy and a youth activation campaign to combat the current epidemic of nicotine addition and e-cigarette use in youth.
The AHA will commit $20 million to fund research that focuses on understanding how e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction impact youth. The End the Lies Youth Vaping and Nicotine Research Initiative is one of the largest research projects ever funded by the association, AHA president Robert A. Harrington, MD, FAHA, said during a press conference held before the start of the annual AHA Scientific Sessions.
Over a 2-year period, AHA will fund two to three basic, clinical and/or population-based research projects that focus on the health impact of vaping and nicotine use in this population. Selected projects will each receive $7 to $10 million. Interested researchers can apply through Jan. 14, 2020, and the projects will be announced in the spring, according to information announced at the briefing.
“This is an unprecedented effort to drive scientific discovery that is designed to help in the vaping and nicotine use and addiction in this country,” Harrington, who is also the Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine and chairman of the department of medicine at Stanford University, said during the briefing.
“Priority areas for us will include, but not be limited, to nicotine’s impact on the adolescent brain development and nicotine's impact on intelligence and learning. ... We're interested in how we might reverse nicotine addiction in youth, using behavioral, pharmacologic or other digital health technology solutions, and, importantly, from an advocacy linked to research perspective, we’re interested in trying to understand the impact of policies which eliminate flavors including mint and menthol and imposing sales age restrictions and restrictions on marketing practices,” he said.
Speaking during the briefing, AHA Chief Science and Medical Officer Mariell Jessup, MD, FAHA, said “there is much that is unknown about e-cigarettes and vaping, particularly in the young. The biologic impacts on multiple organ systems including the heart, brain, lungs and blood vessels have not been well clarified, especially among children and adolescents who are still developing. The recent spate of vaping-related lung disease and death is a tragic validation of this urgent gap in knowledge.”
This announcement comes at a time when there is great attention on e-cigarette use and associated health risks, especially in young people. More than 27% of high school students report using e-cigarettes, an increase from 1.5% of high school students in 2011. E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth, according to the AHA.
The current outbreak of lung injury associated with the use of vaping products has dominated headlines recently. As of Nov. 13, 2019, 2,172 cases of e-cigarette product use-associated lung injury — also known as EVALI — have been reported to the CDC from 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Forty-two deaths have been confirmed thus far. In the case of EVALI, all patients have reported a history of using e-cigarettes. Vitamin E acetate, an additive in some tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-containing products, has been identified as a chemical of concern.
“Our task is to create the evidence base that we hope guides policy makers and public health practice,” Gary H. Gibbons, MD, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH, told Healio. “We see as our task to understand the effects of flavorings or any of the other components of vaping on health. If we are able to generate scientific evidence that there is harm related to a particular additive, we think that that could inform policy.”
In addition, the AHA announced a collaboration with Kaiser Permanente to create the Preventing Youth Nicotine Addiction Policy Fund, which will support policies at the federal, state and community levels to prevent e-cigarette use in children and adolescents and will also support nationwide legislative and grassroots efforts, according to a press release.
Part of the AHA’s aggressive consumer engagement campaign will include a school superintendent forum of administrations from across the U.S. to discuss tobacco use in adolescents and teens, school policies, interventions, youth behaviors, and an end game for addressing e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction in youth.
“Only as a collective are we going to be able to combat this, particularly with the deep pockets in marketing we’ve seen from tobacco in the past and the way they have already started to circle the wagons around this issue,” John Allison, superintendent of Olathe Public Schools in a suburb of Kansas City, Kansas, said during the briefing.
AHA CEO Nancy Brown also announced the launch of the #QuitLying campaign, a new initiative that partners with schools to address potential falsehoods disseminated by tobacco and vaping companies. The QuitLying.org website features educational resources, tips for quitting e-cigarette use, tools for social media sharing and more for students, teachers and parents, according to the AHA.
“Our goal is to empower teens and communities to take control of the narrative and help lead the nationwide dialogue by creating a social chorus to call out ‘Big Vape,’ anywhere, anytime for its lies about the dangers of e-cigarettes,” Brown said during the briefing. “The American Heart Association is investing in this area as well. We will be creating digital and social media tools and campaigns that we will turn over to students and schools to spark a rallying cry against the lies of ‘Big Vape.’” – by Scott Buzby
References:
Cullen KA, et al. JAMA. 2019;doi:10.1001/jama.2019.18387.
#QuitLying campaign. QuitLying.org.