Dr. Maria Rahmandar has seen the effects of teen vaping up close while treating adolescent and young adult patients at Lurie Children’s Hospital.
One patient who stands out was recovering from a fentanyl overdose, she said. But when the teen got off a ventilator, he wasn’t having withdrawal from opioids.
“It was the nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms that were most distressing to him,” Rahmandar said. “The nicotine in these products is so powerful.”
Smoking critics say teenagers have been targeted to start smoking by tobacco and e-cigarette companies by offering kid-friendly flavors from a variety of fruits to bubblegum. The CDC estimates 1.63 million middle- and high-school students use e-cigarettes.
At a news conference at Lurie Children’s Hospital, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) on Monday announced a new initiative to crack down on illegal vape products.
Chinese manufacturers and American importers have been asked to provide information about their practices to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, on which Krishnamoorthi is the ranking Democrat.
“Hundreds of illegal vaping and e-cigarette products, often marketed with bright packaging and ads targeting young people, are still readily available on the market despite lacking approval from the Food and Drug Administration,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement to the Sun-Times. “This blatant and unlawful effort to addict our children to nicotine and tobacco products is unacceptable.”
While the investigation will target Chinese-developed products, Krishnamoorthi is also pushing for the FDA to do more in its fight against e-cigarettes. While the agency has banned flavor vapes, he said companies have exploited loopholes in the regulation to keep their products on shelves. For example, the ban doesn’t apply to disposable vape products.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said these loopholes make it difficult to know what is illegal, making it hard to get unlawful products off shelves.
“The very reason people hate government more often than not, is because they look at it as being ineffective, full of excuses,” he said at the news conference. “Why is this so difficult?”
Dart praised the investigation into Chinese-backed products and encouraged federal government efforts to go further.
Rahmandar said regulations and rules are only as good as their enforcement. Acting now is critical, she said, to avoid the mistakes of the past and stop the health consequences from becoming more drastic.
“We do not need to wait decades, like we did with traditional cigarettes, to find out all the horrifying health effects before taking action,” Rahmandar said.