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School Reports Increase in E-Cigarette Usage

The number of students caught using e-cigarettes on campus has increased from zero last year to five this year, according to Paul Murphy, Dean of Students, prompting the concern of Isham Health Center staff and cluster deans about substance abuse on campus. Cluster deans spoke about the issue of increased tobacco and e-cigarette usage at cluster meetings on Wednesday. Matthew Hession, Dean of Flagstaff Cluster, reminded students at his cluster meeting of the multiple on campus support systems available for students who may be struggling with these substances. According to Andrea Orben, health educator, the lack of research concerning e-cigarettes is particularly alarming. Although they do not produce smoke, they still contain nicotine, wrote Orben in an email to The Phillipian. “E-cigarettes use a battery powered heating element (not fire) as a mechanism to create an aerosol to deliver nicotine (not tobacco) to the user. E-cigs do not pose the risk of second-hand smoke to others but…one of the greatest known risks though is that e-cigarettes increases a user’s risk of nicotine addiction and hence their potential future exposure and/or usage of harmful tobacco products,” said Orben. “Since nicotine is addictive, [the school has], for years, provided help to students who wish to seek help from addiction,” said Murphy in an email to The Phillipian. Sarah Robinson, a Nurse Practitioner at Isham, said in an interview with The Phillipian, “Graham House does a lot of counseling and we do a lot of the medical assessment and prescribing if the level of usage is problematic enough to warrant medical treatment.” The use of tobacco and e-cigarettes can lead to impaired judgement and possibly cancer. Robinson said tobacco use can also be a gateway to the use of other drugs. “We [Isham Health Center] do a fair amount of assessing how much risk — if it’s just kind of casual use or if it is becoming more of a problematic addiction —and [we] can offer a variety of counseling support to try and get them to decrease their usage, and sometimes that involves medication like a nicotine patch or other medications that can help decrease cravings for nicotine,” said Robinson. Orben said that in addition to being detrimental to health, “nicotine and tobacco use (including the use of cigarettes, dip and e-cigarettes) is a major offense at Andover.” The Isham team hopes to broaden the health education regarding tobacco and e-cigarettes on campus. Although “Wellness Week” talks briefly about substance abuse, the staff at Isham to provide more opportunities to talk about substance abuse throughout all four years. A few of Andover’s peer schools have had cases of students being caught using e-cigarettes last year, unlike Andover, Murphy said.