State Targets Youth Vaping As Rates Rise By 300 Percent

More Indiana youth are vaping than ever before and the state plans to address the issue. 

State and health leaders joined teens from Fishers High School to announce the new three-part initiative. 

Gov. Eric Holcomb says it includes educational training for schools and parents, a text-to-quit program and a public awareness campaign.

"So that everyone has the access to reversing the course that we’re currently on," says Holcomb. 

Youth vaping has increased more than 300 percent since 2012.  That is according to new data from the 2018 Indiana Youth Tobacco Survey. 

Indiana Department of Health Commissioner Kristina Box says that means thousands more young Hoosiers are risking their health. 

"Not only from respiratory illnesses like the ones in the news, but also at risk of becoming addicted to nicotine and other substances as they grow," Box says.

Indiana lawmakers failed to pass a tax on vaping products last session. 

Holcomb says the state wants to prevent young people from getting addicted to nicotine. 

"It gets harder and harder to stop and so the best we can do is to make sure they never start," says Holcomb. 

The survey shows 35,000 more Indiana youth vaped between 2016 and 2018.

Contact Jill at jsheridan@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @JillASheridan.