An LSU psychology professor and doctoral candidate are conducting a study to gauge vape use among LSU students to find effective ways to stop nicotine addiction.
Amy Copeland, a psychology professor, and Shelby Stewart, a psychology doctoral candidate, aim to document how frequently students aged 18-24 are using products containing nicotine, the addictive substance found in tobacco products and tobacco-free products such as vapes.
The study is part of Copeland’s research lab, the LSU Smoking and Substance Use Clinical Research Lab, located inside the Department of Psychology building.
“We have over 100 responses at this time among [vape or e-cigarette users], most showing a nicotine level that is in the very high range, indicating they are addicted and may need professional assistance if and when they decide to quit,” Copeland said.
Users’ nicotine level is determined by how frequently they are vaping and how quickly they finish a pod or cartridge.
The number of college students using nicotine products has been increasing. Between 2017 and 2019, the percentage of U.S. college students who said they had used a vape in the last 30 days rose from 6% to 22%, according to the University of Michigan’s U.S. National Monitoring the Future Panel Study.
Though LSU is a tobacco and vape-free campus, students can easily subvert the policy, as vapes and e-cigarettes are easy to hide and usually don’t contain an odor like cigarettes.
LSU was spending a minimum of $37,000 a year to clean up the tobacco-related litter before becoming tobacco-free, according to the LSU Faculty website.
All public campuses in Louisiana were required to ban smoking on campus after legislation passed in 2014.
By studying students’ nicotine use patterns and how dependent they are on the substance, the researchers hope to find better ways to help students quit.
“If participants express interest in quitting, my research team uses that participant’s information to tailor a brief intervention for them based on their use patterns and personal ‘triggers’ for use,” Copeland said.
Those triggers that motivate users to reach for their vape can include stress, depression, appetite suppression and weight control problems, Copeland explained.
Though more research on the effects of vaping is needed, experts say that nicotine addiction is harmful and can affect the developing brain, and that the chemicals found in vape juices can be harmful and cause lung damage.
“This study and others we’ve conducted on campus indicate that students may not be aware of the health risks associated with [vaping] — lung and respiratory issues, changes in the brain, organ damage — and those who do [vape] regularly downplay these risks or are less aware of them,” Copeland said.
Vaping has commonly been used among adults to quit smoking since vapes don’t contain tobacco and the cancer-causing chemicals that come along with it. Many college students are not using it to quit smoking, however.
Food science freshmen Ally Hines occasionally smokes at parties and in her free time. Hines believes that being careful of not picking up an addiction and not giving in to peer pressure will help prevent college students from using e-cigarette products.
“With it being a tobacco-free campus, I think it’s a good idea to bring awareness to how many people are smoking on campus,” she said.
Mechanical engineering freshman Tristan Norwood said that he started smoking in high school and the habit has stuck with him. He smokes and vapes throughout the day and has to go to a vape store nearly every two weeks for new cartridges.
“Mentally it makes you feel good, but it doesn’t make you feel better,” Norwood said. “You build that mental mentality that it will make you feel better.”
Norwood said he deals with a severe cough and congestion, chest and lung pains and withdrawal symptoms such as night sweats and irritability.
“I do not necessarily believe it is a healthy habit,” Norwood said. “You just kind of keep doing it without knowing the consequences of it.”
