Let's Talk about Teen Vaping with Truth Initiative CEO Robin Koval

My guest for this episode of Let's Talk is the CEO of Truth Initiative, Robin Koval!
Since joining Truth Initiative in 2013, Koval has transformed the national award-winning truth® youth tobacco prevention campaign and grown the organization’s world-class research, youth activism, and digital cessation programs. Koval has led the expansion of the truth brand to include innovative quitting tools and resources designed to protect and empower young people to live nicotine-free lives, including the first-of-its kind, text message quit vaping program for teens and young adults, This is Quitting, which has enrolled over 570,000 since launch and a national youth e-cigarette prevention curriculum Vaping: Know the truth, now reaching almost 6,000 schools across the country.
I chat with Robin about current questions such as:
- What's holding up the FDA from regulating flavors?
- How can you get teens' attention about vaping health risks?
- If you think your child is vaping, what's the best way to approach them about it?
- What resources are available to help teens quit vaping, what's missing and how is Truth Initiative working to close the gap?

[@prof_milki6989]

What if your kid-friendly logic is wrong? Seeing that risen teen use correlates with the eradication of smoking (more harmful & addictive), is *all* youth NVP use non-beneficial?
And if the magic deterrence from synthetic "tobacco" flavours doesn't hold true, wouldn't you actually be lobbying for smoking habituation?

[@weinerphd]

Thoughts off the cuff are that smoking rates were in steady decline since the late 90s, long before the advent of vaping. Data also points towards kids who vape being 3-4x more likely to initiate smoking in the next 12 months, as well as vaping itself having carcinogens, lipids, and numerous toxic chemicals.
We don't need vaping to keep kids off tobacco - they were doing that already. Statistically speaking, vaping actually makes it more likely we'll see a rise in teen smoking again, not less.

[@prof_milki6989]

@@weinerphd Is cohort overlap the same as causation? The gateway hypothesis sort of seems to be less of a fear, and more like a fetish at this point. Some people seem so married to that idea, they almost seem to desire it. (Doesn't look like just a lobbying pretext anymore; given the observable outcomes of moving teens off of substitutes.)