How are B.C. schools making an effort to stop teen vaping?

From installing more security cameras to putting vape detectors in washrooms – some B.C. schools are tackling the growing problem of vaping, which a B.C. lung expert says is harming teens.

“We’re seeing the levels of vaping really rise in kids that are of school age. And what’s been really interesting is that the age that they’re starting is about ten years old,” said Christopher Lam, President and CEO of the BC Lung Foundation.

He says this is a wake-up call. Kids are back in school after the pandemic and back to vaping, threatening not only their brain development but their healthy lung tissue.

“It creates scarring so that when you try to breathe, it’s hard and it can’t expand to contract the way a normal healthy lung would. And that really does cause breathing issues for people in the short term and long term,” Lam said.

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A Surrey parent says she’s concerned about her daughter’s health and safety with kids in her school vaping and smoking.

“My daughter, she can’t go to use the washroom because girls are vaping there,” said Gurvinder Kailay, whose child is in eighth grade.

The Surrey School District is considering putting vape detectors in bathrooms. They would be joining schools like New Westminster Secondary, which installed those and more surveillance cameras in March to hinder the habit.

“The issue with vaping is students can easily consider all these devices in their pockets or clothing and monitoring bathrooms does create a sense of like an invasion of privacy and potential hostile environment for students. So we’re approaching this in a very balanced manner,” said Ritinder Matthew, Associate Director of Communications for the district.

“Vaping is not allowed on our school grounds and we know it happens.”

Surrey and other school districts in B.C. are hosting vaping information workshops for parents, but Kailay wants more action.

“They should strictly stop that thing in the school, if somebody is doing that and they get caught, they should get suspended or investigated by the school,” she said.

And Lam thinks more should be done by the province to get vapes out of the hands of kids sooner.

“The flavors out there on the marketplace are things like peach fuzz, and birthday cake, and unicorns breath. We know for a fact they’re not targeting grown-ups with those, they’re targeting our kids,” he said.

CityNews has reached out to the B.C. Ministry of Health for comment on the matter.