Vaping Hoodies? Parents And Teachers Continue To Be Fooled

As if the vaping mayhem hasn’t been bad enough, with nearly daily reports of acute lung disease and at least seven deaths reported due to vaping, parents of teens, and the teachers who teach them, continue to be duped by stealth vaping techniques both in and out of the classroom. Vaping hoodies are just one product in the growing list of camouflage techniques being used to vape in schools. These include vaping devices mimicking pens, USB flash drives, and even “Apple-like” watches. Vaping companies would refer to these as “discreet.” But discretion in the teen world is usually used as an age-old method of hiding something they shouldn’t be doing.

Perhaps the brilliance of the vaping hoodie is that the device is embedded in the garment, at the end of the hoodie drawstring. Who doesn’t recall that kid (or kids) who chewed on their hoodie strings at school? These days, those kids may be vaping, not gnawing. The company Vaprwear markets various and sundry stylish hoodies, pullovers, backpacks, and hats, all to be used for vaping. The vaping cartridges, heating elements, and tubing are all “discretely” embedded in the clothing.

Screen shot from Vaprwear Site. Hoodie drawstring shows vaping adapter

SCREEN SHOT VAPRWEAR GEAR

While many teachers have become more savvy when it comes to recognize vaping pens and USB flash drives, the vaping hoodies may be harder to notice.  The Vaprwear hoodies tend to be stylish, monochromatic, with minimal flashy labeling (most have a small “V” logo on the shoulder, and the graphic hoodies have larger images such as a Colorado ski visual). Some products have a cannabis logo as a frontal patch, but stealth (discreet!) vaping teens likely know better than to push the envelope on any smoking reference while trying to hide the fact.

The hoodies and other vaping products are marketed to adults (18 years and older in many states; 21 years and older in California), with statements on the Vaprwear site on their commitment to adult use only. They even have a ten-slide PowerPoint presentation on how parents and teachers can recognize Vaprwear hoodies in the tween and young teen set.  One slide even mentions that the inhalation component may be considered for inhaled medications such as albuterol, a commonly used medication used to treat and prevent asthma in both kids and adults. Hmmm…

As with many of the vaping product sites, including Juul labs, under increased scrutiny for marketing to youth, the hoodies, as well as all of the vaping products, clearly state they are marketing to adults only. As an added angle for the hoodie market, there are photos of beautiful mountain scenes, hiker vapers, and beachy vapers. It looks about as healthy as the doctors of the old cigarette ads, or new vaping ads with athletes vaping before or after a workout.

With the beauty of any marketing, be it current-day online advertising or the clearly ridiculous advertisements of the male doctor smoking a Camel cigarette (“More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette”), the illusion of what’s healthy may have changed over the past eight or so decades, but it’s still an illusion.

Thanks to so much discretion, it’s getting harder, but try not to be fooled. Health and wellness has always been promoted from so many fronts–the snake oil salesmen of the past, promising longevity and good health from nothing more than a mix of mineral oil, red pepper, and tabasco. The (exclusively male) physicians of the 1940’s promoting cigarettes for relaxation, to the vaping fashionistas clothed in a hoodie linked to a healthy, outdoorsy lifestyle. This skier/hiker/climber is now coated not only in a cool hoodie, but also in vapors known to be harmful, or even deadly– even if that skier/hiker/climber is sitting in an eighth grade classroom. The CEO of Vaprwear was not available for immediate comment.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninashapiro/2019/09/28/vaping-hoodies-parents-and-teachers-continue-to-be-fooled/#16bc0d78d850