Staten Island teens take part in training to become ambassadors in vaping prevention

Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) recently held its first Staten Island Vaping Prevention Ambassador Training event, which drew close to fifty students from Staten Island high schools.

The students gained knowledge about the risks associated with vaping and e-cigarettes, as well as how they may act as anti-vaping ambassadors by urging their friends and peers to ban e-cigarette usage in their neighborhoods.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with Public Health Solutions on November 15.

According to Daniel J. Messina, president and chief executive officer of RUMC, one in five Staten Island teenagers smoke a pack or more each day, making it the borough with the highest rate of teen smoking. Additionally, almost one out of four teenagers in our borough use e-cigarettes. It is impossible to overstate the value of lung screenings, which can result in early detection, and more education, particularly for our youth.

A number of doctors, surgeons, and other medical professionals from RUMC spoke to the students throughout the event and recounted their experiences coping with the negative health impacts of tobacco usage.

Curtis High School, McCown High School, Michael J. Petrides High School, Moore Catholic High School, New Dorp High School, Notre Dame Academy, Port Richmond High School, St. Joseph Hill Academy, St. Peter’s Boys High School, and Staten Island Academy were among the numerous high schools in the borough that were represented by the students.

Attendance earned students community service credits.

At the anti-vaping event, Dr. Loren Harris, chief of thoracic surgery and chairman of RUMC’s surgical department, gives Staten Island high school students a presentation on lung cancer statistics. Richmond University Medical Center is the source.Richmond University Medical Center provided this image.

Medical professionals weigh in

The director of RUMC’s lung screening program, Dr. Keith Diaz, provided visual representations of a vape cartridge’s contents and their physiological effects.

He underlined that the fluid in vape devices contains chemical substances like benzaldehyde and cinnamon aldehyde for artificial taste.

Lung cancer statistics, the increase in lung cancer instances over the past century, the death toll, risk factors, and even pictures of how a person’s lungs can look after years of tobacco use were all presented by Dr. Loren Harris, chair of RUMC’s surgical department and chief of thoracic surgery.

It’s crucial that young people are informed about the severe consequences that any nicotine use can have, even if this information might be difficult to face, Harris added.

A call to action

Nancy Sayegh-Rooney, a registered nurse and lung nurse navigator at RUMC, urged the children to act as anti-vaping advocates in their school and community.

Rooney used the narrative of a guy who needed a lung transplant as a visual aid for the pupils. A young child who had been slain in Puerto Rico gave him a new lung.

While the man was recovering in the hospital after the surgery, the mother of the deceased child personally informed him: never take a smoke.

According to Rooney, Staten Island has the highest rates of smokers and lung cancer in New York City. You cannot survive without your breath, and we must live.

Hands-on training

The students were divided into four color-coded groups and given the goal of creating a smoke-free promotional poster using the knowledge they had gained from the training as a way to conclude the daylong event.

After sharing their work, the students discussed the sources of information they utilized to create their poster.

The event’s high point, according to Rooney, was the closing presentations. According to her, the children were amazing; they truly learned something and were incredibly involved at the end.

The training for this initial cohort of student ambassadors will be concluded in the spring of 2025 with the second session.

Following the holidays, the second session’s date and time will be revealed.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports that the North Shore of Staten Island has a higher early lung cancer death rate than both the remainder of Staten Island and New York City as a whole.

According to research, smoking is a major contributing factor to the two main causes of premature mortality, which are cancer and heart disease.

Thanks to a large settlement by one of the corporations that contributed significantly to the teenage vaping pandemic, New York City has gotten tens of millions of dollars to help fight it.