Written by Emily Torres
On Wednesday, November 20, Professor Lanza gave a presentation to honors students about “the diversity of CSULB undergraduate's health-risk behaviors related to substance use (e-cigarette/vaping use, cigarette smoking, binge drinking, and marijuana use)” (University Honors Program)
Dr. Isabella Lanza, Associate Professor of Human Development at CSULB, who established the Risky Health among Adolescents and Young Adults laboratory, explained that “Nicotine, THC… and anything that can be produced into a liquid form can go into a vape.”
RHAYA, which works to examine “health-risk behaviors from early adolescence to young adulthood, took a survey of 435 CSULB undergrad students from 2018-2019 to collect her data, and shared the results with students at the event.
Vaping is “inhaling an aerosol, or vapor” which is created when “a battery takes up the liquid and heats it up in a coil which works together to create the aerosol that we inhale through a mouthpiece.”
Lanza’s research shows that not only are students vaping, but there is also evidence of co-current substance abuse (such as binge drinking and marijuana use). The survey itself asked the students questions about mental/ physical health as well as personality and substance abuse.
Her survey results concluded that of the 435 students that participated, 43% reported using e-cigarettes with nicotine at some point in their lifetime, and of this group, 7.8% are frequent users (which is defined as someone who vapes “at least 5 times in a month”). 32.1% have tried cigarettes but only 3.5% are frequent users.
What surprised Lanza the most was the amount of students who reported binge drinking, which she defined as having “4 to 5 drinks in one sitting.” The results showed 58.4% have tried alcohol in their lifetime, but an alarming 11% were frequenters. Similarly, students reported that 56.5% had used marijuana in their lifetime and 13.8% were frequent users.
She demonstrated the various types of vape devices through the years, beginning in 2007. The first vape pen was designed to look like a cigarette because, according to Lanza, it was a “cessation tool for smokers” and “tobacco companies claimed that vaping is a good thing.”
Although vaping has been around for more than a decade, there’s still so much that is unknown about its effects. For instance, Lanza stated, “There is no current evidence that shows that vaping causes cancer… mainly because tobacco products related to vaping were not regulated until very recently. Before 2016, we had no idea what chemicals were going into vape, and even now not so much. We have until 2022 where research and regulation policies will actually go into effect.”
Even so, Lanza informed the audience that “Nicotine is so addictive that there’s many studies that have found that once you start vaping nicotine in your youth, you’re much more likely to become a regular cigarette smoker in your adulthood.”
After analyzing the statistics, Professor Lanza concluded that 71% of CSULB students have low substance use levels, however, for those students that fall in the e-cigarette (with nicotine) category, they are “more likely to be binge drinking and probably using marijuana.” This means that partaking in one activity could possibly lead to partaking in the others.
However, the likelihood of that also depends on other predictors. For instance, Lanza noted that “impulsivity, deviant peer affiliation, and depressive symptoms all predicted to that vaping with nicotine class.” Therefore, the individual’s personality, as well as their surrounding environment and who they associate with, can have an effect on substance abuse, and that is a major takeaway from this presentation.
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