OPINION: Get flavored tobacco products off shelves and save lives

She started with vaping. He started with vaping. They started with vaping.

Vaping has affected many in my life, and I’ve seen how it alters the lives of my peers and cuts off the path to a healthy future. I’ve seen them at school, seen how their behaviors change, their grades change and their spirit changes.

What I haven’t seen — or what I can’t see — is the irreversible damage to their minds, hearts, and lungs that e-cigarettes cause. I especially can’t see or feel the cancer and sickness inside their chests, ready to take over their very lives.

More than 2.1 million middle school and high students use e-cigarettes. And among those 2.1 million kids, 89% use flavored tobacco products. In Oregon, 5,500 Oregonians die each year from illnesses caused by smoking these products — cancer being chief among them as it has touched the lives of millions.

My family has been affected by cancer. It has caused devastation, but I’ve turned that devastation into a passion to advocate against cancer and prevent families and students from being affected the same way. Last September, I joined the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and have joined the anti-tobacco campaign across the nation to end the sale of flavored tobacco products. This is not only to save lives, but the vibrancy of my peers, as these flavored tobacco products change them in very real ways.

Many students, and some of my peers, started using these flavored products in middle school without knowing the potential damages. In high school, awareness is more widespread yet students still use, driven by flavored tobacco ads targeting youth, easy access to the products and the idea that consequences are in a distant future they can’t yet comprehend. Once they start, the nicotine in these tobacco products is extremely addictive and doesn’t allow them to let go. Not only is nicotine found in these products, but the aerosol in e-cigarettes can contain cancer-causing chemicals and tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into lungs.

Two Oregon counties have enacted laws on the sale of flavored tobacco products and, in 2023, the Oregon Legislature introduced House Bill 3090 which would have ended the sale of flavored products including menthol cigarettes. This law would have put fewer teenagers within reach of corporate tobacco’s flavored marketing, designed as a bridge to a lifetime as a customer and addiction. HB 3090 was not successful, but there’s significant hope that a similar bill will be enacted in the 2025 session. Oregon lawmakers need to hear what we see in school and around our communities to understand how important this is for our future.

Oregon youth, ACS CAN and Flavors Hook Oregon Kids will continue to fight to get flavored products off shelves and to save lives. Please, listen to my story and join the fight against flavored tobacco products and save the next generation from a lifetime of addiction and a much higher risk of cancer.