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02/20/2024 01:52 PMThe North Haven Local Prevention Council (LPC) has released its “7 Strategies for Community Change” action plan with the goal of creating change within the North Haven and Hamden communities to lower the use of electronic nicotine products among the towns’ young population.
The LPC’s new public health framework comes on the heels of its inaugural year that saw the establishment of communications between the council and North Haven residents, especially its youth in the middle school and high school demographics. The LPC’s second year of engagement began with a presentation from the Tobacco Research in Youth (TRY) team from Yale New Haven Hospital at the Ulbrich Conference Center on Jan 31. The data shared by the research team on the prevalent use of electronic nicotine products such as vapes was a key factor in outlining the LPC’s action plan.
TRY’s research found that, “About 2.8 million youth currently use any tobacco product, including 6.6 percent of middle schoolers," according to a federal National Youth Tobacco Survey cited by the team.
It is important to note that this data is not “generalizable for all of North Haven” and its varying age demographics, said former LPC head Nicole Mason. Also important is that the LPC cannot determine the extent of vaping among North Haven youth given the current lack of data. However, based on conversations with people at Moon Rise Cafe and stories from North Haven High School graduate Emily Konopka, the prevailing consensus is that this is something happening in the town.
TRY’s work should prove helpful in collecting the type of North Haven-specific data that the LPC is looking to garner throughout 2024. Mason said one of the ways the LPC will collect data is to have a “suggestion box” and QR code at the North Haven Counseling Center at which people can give anonymous answers to various questions, starting with the basic inquiry, “Do you vape nicotine?”
“The purpose of that question is to get a baseline of how many folks in North Haven are vaping in varying ages,” said Mason.
The collected statistics will support the specific work and associated goals outlined in the LPC’s seven-point action plan, said Mason. One of the two foundational goals for vaping reduction among North Haven youth is busting the false “low perception of harm” that e-cigarette devices are marketed to be an alternative to regular cigarettes and how others may respond to that falsehood.
“That’s usually a pretty baseline place to start in prevention work. If there's not a lot of awareness of the risks, it's more likely that people are going to engage in that substance underage if they don't know if it's harmful,” said Mason.
Mason added that a subsequent step is providing additional information on the “ease of access” to vape devices and how varying stakeholders from retailers, schools, parents, and town leaders can reduce that ease.
Using these “two primary root causes” for use, as described by Mason, the LPC’s strategy includes numerous action plans for which those stakeholders can advocate. To tackle the “low perception of harm,” the LPC is looking at various methods to make young people aware of the dangers and social pressures revolving around vaping. These include providing to youth and parents “information on misperception that vaping helps anxiety” and the risks of underage use, along with “education and training on peer pressure” and how to most effectively talk about the issue, as well as promoting resources for crises and mental health hotlines.
To reduce the “ease of access” while communicating the harms of vaping, the LPC is advocating for greater enforcement and transparency around products and their use, as outlined in its strategies. Examples include advocating for a ban on flavored vapes “that are enticing for youth,” in addition to reducing “promotional signage that advertises nicotine use,” and working with retailers on policies to prevent sales to underage users, according to Mason.
Through its network for stakeholders, Mason said the LPC is striving to “change the culture” around nicotine use and vaping by looking to the policies and procedures that were implemented to reduce harm and access to tobacco products as a parallel for its work.
“That’s the hope for nicotine, too…that it becomes a norm that it's prevented in our communities,” said Mason.
While it is important for town leaders to be proactive on the issue on the local level, Mason said there is an opportunity for all of North Haven to “take ownership” of prevention and reduction.
“Ultimately, these coalitions need to be held by the community,” said Mason. “It’s the only way they thrive…It’s not just the stakeholders and the leaders in the community that have to have a sense of responsibility for underage nicotine use. It's the entire North Haven community.”