Opinion
A4
Saturday, February 26, 2022
OUR VIEW
Laying a
foundation
to help others
he recent eff ort by Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity students and faculty to collect food
donations for Union County residents is
one of those feel-good moments every commu-
nity should look to and rejoice.
The project also once again puts the spotlight
on an ongoing challenge locally where there are
people who continue to struggle to feed their
families.
That’s why eff orts like the one sponsored by
the university are so important and send the right
message. That message is simple: We care about
our neighbors.
The need for many is a year-long battle. While
the emphasis every holiday season is rightly
placed on helping those who are in need, the
demand for assistance — especially with food —
doesn’t evaporate as soon as Jan. 1 arrives.
In fact, an argument could be made that other
periods during the year refl ect an even greater
need.
The takeaway on the issue is also straightfor-
ward. Those who struggle and need such basic
survival items as food are with us every day of
every month during the year.
That’s why the food collection eff ort by the
university is so important. More eff orts such as
that need to be undertaken throughout the year.
The more we can do to help those who are less
fortunate the better the entire community will be
in the long run.
We should not be a community that accepts the
fact that there are men and women and children
in our midst who must scramble to fi nd food. In
a nation and state as great as ours, that is just a
fact we should not have to accept. We have basic
human rights obligations to ensure children do
not go hungry. That those who are struggling
receive needed help.
It isn’t an easy challenge to overcome, but
working together we can, as a community, lay a
foundation for a framework that helps those who
hit hard times and need a help up.
The food donation program by the students and
faculty at the university deserves praise and we
must all do as much as we can to help those who
are less fortunate in our community.
T
EDITORIALS
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More Oregon teens are inhaling toxins
GARY
ALLEN
OTHER VIEWS
“D
on’t be a butthead.”
“Smoke free is the
way to bee.”
The ugly truth.
Even with decades of memorable
warnings and data, people are still
taking up the deadly habit of smoking,
still facing the same — and even new
— health risks. February marks Chil-
dren’s Dental Health Month, a per-
fect time to call out the prevalence
of vaping (using e-cigarettes) among
adolescents.
More than 2 million middle school-
and high school-aged U.S. teens
reported vaping in 2021. In Oregon,
just more than 25% of 11th graders
and 13% of eighth graders said vaping
was their entry into smoking. The
most recent Oregon Healthy Teens
Survey report also shows that roughly
60% of students believe that vaping
every day poses only a moderate,
slight or no risk at all of general harm.
As a leader in the oral health fi eld,
I suppose that doesn’t surprise me.
I mostly remember the anti-tobacco
campaigns that featured a smoker
with yellow teeth or a hole in the
throat. Traditional cigarettes in the
past few decades haven’t seemed to be
mistaken for a low-risk habit, perhaps
because of those campaigns.
Today, e-cigarettes have health
risks just as deserving of public health
campaigns and just as serious for
young people, including risks of mood
disorders and addiction, as well as
serious impacts on oral health.
Clearly, there is a need to raise
awareness about just how harmful it
is to vape.
We know COVID-19 has intensi-
fi ed the problem.
“Adolescents who experienced
pandemic-related severe stress,
depression or anxiety, or whose fam-
ilies experienced material hardship
during the pandemic were most likely
to use substances,” researchers note.
Though national data indicates teen
substance abuse remained the same or
declined overall during the pandemic,
the number of kids using nicotine
products jumped.
Life changes from COVID-19 may
have reinforced vaping as the predom-
inant method of nicotine consumption
among young people because vape
pens are easier to conceal at home
than alcohol and have a false reputa-
tion for being safer than regular cig-
arettes. But nicotine isn’t the only
cause of adverse health eff ects we
need to worry about.
Research shows vaping increases
infl ammation throughout the body,
raising the risk for life-threatening
health issues such as stroke and car-
diovascular disease. A study pub-
lished in the Journal of Adolescent
Health suggests young adults who
only vape are fi ve times more likely
to get COVID-19 than their peers
who smoke traditional cigarettes or
do not use either product. Vaping also
severely impacts oral health, which
is directly related to increased risk
for long-term threats of dental decay,
gum disease and cancer, and com-
pounds many of the other health
issues mentioned.
E-cigarettes contain toxins
including formaldehyde, cadmium,
nickel and lead that damage the skin
and make it more prone to infections
and acne, as well as worsen psori-
asis and rosacea. Chemicals in e-ciga-
rettes, like propylene glycol, vegetable
glycerin and acetaldehyde, can harm
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both hard and soft tissue in the mouth,
while nicotine reduces blood fl ow in
the mouth, resulting in gum disease
and even permanent loss of teeth.
The majority of teenagers report
that candy fl avors were the reason
they fi rst tried an e-cigarette. Per-
haps ironic, these fl avored vapes, such
as “tutti frutti,” “bubblegum” and
“cotton candy,” increase risk for cav-
ities and other oral disease just like
actual candies. Vape fl avor additives
double the growth of bacteria in the
mouth that cause tooth decay, while
also decreasing the hardness of tooth
enamel by 27%, limiting natural pro-
tection against that bacteria.
Poor oral and overall health in
adolescence frequently leads to even
worse oral and overall health during
adulthood.
Educating youth and empowering
them with refusal skills to resist mar-
keting and peer pressure ensures
fewer young people are harmed by
e-cigarettes. It’s why we must support
the national, evidence-based CATCH
My Breath school program, which
reduces students’ likelihood to experi-
ment with vaping by 45%.
But it’s time to bring in reinforce-
ments. Open conversation with adults
outside of school is key to helping
teens make healthier decisions for
their future. Take the time to educate
yourself and then talk about vaping
with the teens in your life.
The health of a generation depends
on it.
———
Dr. Gary Allen, an Oregon
native, is vice president of clinical
services for Advantage Dental from
DentaQuest in Redmond. Dr. Allen
received his degree from the Univer-
sity of Oregon Dental School and a
master’s degree in oral biology from
George Washington University.
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