While youth smoking rates continue to be at-all-time low, vaping devices (like e-cigarettes) are now addicting youth to nicotine instead of cigarettes.

Between 2017-2019, vaping rates doubled among Ontario students in grades 7-12. Rates showed a slight decline during the early waves of COVID-19, possibly because young people were not out in public places as often due to public health measures. As a result, youth likely had less access to/sharing of the devices with friends and peers and fewer social contacts that can attract youth to vape. Unfortunately, there’s evidence that vaping rates in youth are creeping back up to pre-pandemic rates.

In speaking with local youth, parents and teachers, we are hearing that vaping continues to be a major issue among Simcoe Muskoka youth. This is concerning as many people don’t realize that e-cigarettes have health risks and using them also increases the chances that youth will begin smoking cigarettes.

Information about vaping products, the laws and the impact of vaping on health have been changing rapidly, so we developed resources to help educators, as well as parents/caregivers and students learn about vaping and the health effects the devices can cause.

Schools provide an ideal setting to educate young people about e-cigarettes and vaping to help prevent them from starting to vape and support youth looking to quit. In response to the need for teaching tools to help address youth vaping, we worked with provincial health unit partners to create Not An Experiment. More information about this initiative, the resources available and the support the health unit’s smoke-free program can provide can be found in the sections below.