Actress Laura Dern has recently shared how being a mother has inspired her to educate teens about the danger of e-cigarettes through her latest collaboration with the American Lung Association (ALA).
Talking about the ALA and its new Vape-Free Schools Initiative, Dern told PEOPLE why she wants to educate the youth about the dangers of vaping.
The 54-year-old actress said, “We are in a terrifying time as we look at the growth alone that has occurred in the last four years with vaping amongst our youth and in this country.”
As the mother to two teens, Dern told PEOPLE exclusively that she knows the perils of vaping, especially to her kids’ generation.
“I am raising teenagers and around a lot of teenagers that I know and love, and it is so shocking to witness a group of kids who were the first generation to say … when they saw a parent with a cigarette when they were five, six years old, ‘What are you doing? You’re going to die,” she continued.
“Because the messaging, thanks to an organization like the American Lung Association, and culture itself, this was the generation that knew smoking kills and addiction to nicotine is terrifying,” Dern added. “We felt like we were at the end of a tragic crisis.”
“And tragically this generation, now only a few years later as teenagers, it has been messaged to them that vaping is a safer alternative. That it’s hip, that it’s popular, that it’s just cool, fruit-flavored juice and that there’s no danger. That it’s the safe alternative to smoking. And, as we know, this is absolutely, tragically the opposite of true.”
A National Youth Tobacco Survey, which was released in September 2020, found that nearly 20% of high school students are currently vaping, marking vaping epidemic “terrifying,” according to Dern.
Now, the ALA has started the Vape-Free Schools Initiative, which is a “new scholarship fund that equips schools with resources to prevent and reduce youth vaping and provides kids more access to cessation, support and education,” according to the association.
And Dern said she is grateful for the ALA’s initiative, which is “so deeply focused on the environment and the environmental hazards that people are facing in terms of lung health. And obviously, in this last year-plus with the [COVID-19] pandemic, they have done such extraordinary work and fundraising.”
Recognizing the impact of the COVID pandemic on teen’s mental health, Dern said, “Specifically to this initiative, we are dealing with — separate from a pandemic — the epidemic amongst our youth and teens of generalized anxiety and depression through this time.”
“As adults, we know when anxieties are high, how easy it is to rely on a habit or a vice to get through,” she continued.
“And [while] vaping, e-cigarettes and nicotine itself might seem like a popular resource to handle anxiety, we need to be there culturally, and as a community, to give educators and schools and students the knowledge about different ways to manage stress and anxiety and the repercussions of something like this,” she added. The story was published on PEOPLE.
