A health teacher at John Adams Middle School in Rochester, Abby Siems talks to her students about the harmful effects of tobacco. The kids learn from Siems about why they shouldn’t use it — and sometimes Siems learns from the youth about why some of them do.
Students aren’t likely to share in class about their own experimentation with tobacco products, but they can be very perceptive about why some of their peers are using them.
“A lot of the students are on target,” Siems says. “They, like many others, report using to cope because they don’t have good stress-management skills.”
Dr. Kavita Prasad is medical director of integrative medicine for Zumbro Valley Health Center, working with underserved populations with mental health and substance abuse problems.
“We’re seeing kids use it to manage stress,” Dr. Prasad says. “Youth with mental health problems are using nicotine to manage anxiety and depression.”
Tobacco use among youth in the U.S. was on the decline for decades until the start of the vaping epidemic sometime around the early 2010s. According to Olmsted County’s 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment about 8% of high schoolers in Olmsted County use tobacco — and almost 90% of those are using e-cigarettes. Tobacco companies have developed products, especially candy- and fruit-flavored vapes, to attract and addict a new generation of customers.
Christa Welbon, chemical health specialist for Rochester Public Schools, sees the impacts of this firsthand. Rotating among two middle schools and a high school, Welbon keeps a “vape box” to discard the vaping products that are either taken from or turned in by students.
“I started working with youth in 1992 when Joe Camel was popular,” she says. “Now it has changed so much with e-cigarette use and vaping.”
Welbon observes that the tobacco industry is tapping into young people’s inherent sense of curiosity by presenting them with a menu of products with flavors like watermelon, raspberry and peach.
“They sound like a fruit smoothie. They sound healthy — look, it’s fruit!” she says. “As a teen, as a child, you want to see what it’s like.”
Dr. Prasad has noticed the impact of social media influencers who can have an outsized impact on kids who are lonely or socially insecure.
“They’re not talking about the harms of nicotine or how it’s affecting you,” Dr. Prasad says. “They’re talking about how it’s fashionable to use, it matches your clothes, it helps you fit in. Especially for kids struggling with self-esteem, it’s promoting use.”
Although it isn’t legal for those under 21 to buy tobacco products, Siems notes that approximately 90% of adult users started on tobacco when they were teens or very young adults.
“They might be using vaping products because they’re curious or because they aren’t really well-informed, and they believe some of the myths,” she says. “They think it’s harmless because it doesn’t smell like smoke.”
In fact, e-cigarettes can be especially harmful for kids because one vape can deliver as much nicotine as 20 traditional cigarettes. In addition, nicotine can affect brain development, negatively impact learning and attention spans, and actually lead to anxiety disorders. The U.S. Surgeon General concluded that any use by youth of nicotine is unsafe.
“They don’t realize the amount of nicotine they are getting in the vape cartridge these days,” Welbon says. “And because of that level of nicotine, it is harder for young people to stop using. “It’s quickly habit forming.”
So, no matter the reason a kid might have started using tobacco — curiosity, peer pressure, anxiety – too many of them will continue using for one reason: They have become addicted.
“Youth aren’t really coming forward to quit,” Dr. Prasad says. “They say, ‘This is my go-to. This is how I’m dealing with stress.’”
About Love Your Lungs
Love Your Lungs is a coalition that works to protect our community from the harms of flavored commercial tobacco. We advocate for policy change, educate the community, and connect young people to the support they need to live nicotine-free lives. If your organization is interested in joining our coalition, visit LoveYourLungsOlmsted.org
