Redondo Beach About Town
BCHD announces
anti-vaping series
The Beach Cities Health District is continuing its work to educate parents, students and the public at large about the dangers of vaping and e-cigarettes with a series of events planned for February and March.
The anti-vaping series kicked off Feb. 10 with training for school nurses and health aides titled “What You Need to Know About Vaping,” led by Dr. Alice Kuo of UCLA Health. The event included vaping prevention, intervention and treatment and how to recognize e-cigarette use by students including physiological, behavioral and emotional symptoms.
Events will continue through mid-March at locations around the Beach Cities.
“In the Beach Cities, the California Healthy Kids Survey reports that one in four 11th graders are vaping regularly and four out of five say it’s easy to access these devices,” said BCHD CEO Tom Bakaly. “We are actively working to support our community and schools to address this problem and we are offering resources to educate residents about the dangers of vaping.”
BCHD has created a resource page on its website at bchd.org/vaping, with facts, tips and cessation resources, and BCHD’s Youth Advisory Council, comprised of 80 Beach Cities students in eighth to 12th grades, will roll out a peer-to-peer anti-vaping campaign.
BCHD’s Youth Advisory Council is developing a poster and postcard campaign to expose the truth about vaping. Local students have created witty, eye-catching slogans encouraging students who vape to stop and seek help.
The poster and postcards will be available at all middle and high school campuses, raising awareness of the dangers of vaping and directing students to resources to quit vaping. All posters and postcards will link directly to bchd.org/vaping.
On Monday, Feb. 24 at the Adams Middle School Library, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the Redondo Beach Parent Teacher Association, with BCHD, will host a meeting focused on vaping and access followed by a Q&A session featuring Clear Recovery Center. BCHD’s Youth Advisory Council will continue to educate parents and students on the realities surrounding the vaping epidemic including the ingredients, problems with access and ways the community can act. All parents and students fifth grade and up are welcome.
A second event will take place the next night, on Feb. 25, at the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Office, also from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Register online at bchd.org/vaping.