SEVEN people have died! Need action now
Pediatricians nationwide have raised the alarm as the numbers of middle- and high-school students who are vaping continues to skyrocket. The National Youth Tobacco survey (2018) showed a 78 % increase in e-cigarette use in high school students with a 48 % increase in middle school students between 2017-2018. Now considered a public health crisis with hundreds of cases of severe respiratory illnesses and seven deaths linked to vaping, physicians, legislators, educators, and respiratory health organizations are joining forces to curb its use in adolescents.
Dr. Mary Cataletto
The American College of Chest Physicians has long supported regulation of e-cigarettes, joining the Forum of International Respiratory Societies in a position statement recommending bans on flavored e-cigarettes and the restricting use in areas where children are present.
The Administration announced this week its intention to “ clear the market “ of all flavored e-cigarettes. Sweet and fruit flavorings are known to entice adolescents to try e-cigarettes while the variety and ability to choose their own combinations of flavors continues to bring teens back again and again. We know that the brain continues to develop into our mid-twenties, causing teens to be more vulnerable to the addictive properties of nicotine.
Increasing numbers of exposures in adolescents and the severity of vaping-related illnesses have prompted states to take a proactive approach to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of children. Michigan was the first state to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes online and in brick and mortar stores with compliance to take effect within the next 30 days. Other states are expected to follow suit.
Legislation is an important step in our efforts to curb vaping and protect our children.
Mary Cataletto MD, FAAP, FCCP
NetWork Chair
Pulmonary Physiology, Function and Rehabilitation
Pulmonary rehab and COPD
The introduction of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) into the care of a patient with COPD can be a life-changing intervention. It has not only been shown to significantly improve symptoms, daily function, and quality of life – but also reduce the risk of acute exacerbation (Spruit et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013;188[8]:e13). However, the referral rate for PR is extremely low, and many patients with COPD, despite having high symptom burdens, may be unaware of its existence. Unfortunately, this problem is worsened by PR program availability and proximity, with recent estimates suggesting that there are only 831 PR centers in the US for 24 million patients with COPD (Bhatt. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2019;16[1]:55). As a result, there is an immediate need to explore alternative strategies that enable patients to realize the benefits of PR outside of a facility-based program (Rochester, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2015;192[11]:1373).
Dr. Eric J. Gartman
Recently, there have been many proposals for adapting PR programs to accommodate the maximum number of participants; these have included home-, telehealth- or internet-based programs, and low-impact exercise (eg, yoga or tai-chi) regimens. While these interventions may benefit our patients with COPD, current data do not support that they are a replacement for or replicate the robust outcomes of a formal PR program. It is important that in the process of expanding the availability of “pulmonary rehab,” we do not dilute the process as to limit its returns. Significant attention is being paid to developing novel program designs that utilize technology and nonfacility-based programs – and in the end, there will be a balance struck between beneficial outcomes, program personalization, and proper patient selection for a given regimen.
Eric Gartman, MD, FCCP
Steering Committee Member