The use of e-cigarettes among Wisconsin\u2019s high school students is at an all-time high, according to the state Department of Health Services.<\/p>\n
Vaping, with its candy- and fruit-flavorings, attracts children who otherwise would not try conventional cigarettes, leading to increased nicotine addiction in middle and high school kids. This would be a public health issue by itself, but e-cigarettes have no excise tax like traditional cigarettes and retailers selling them do not have to have a license.<\/p>\n
For the American Lung Association\u2019s Partnership for a Tobacco Free Wisconsin coalition, advocating for more restrictions on tobacco is a heavy lift, and the association benefits from a partnership with faculty and students from UW-Milwaukee\u2019s Zilber School of Public Health. In their most recent collaboration, students write policy briefs to address tobacco prevention problems like the youth vaping epidemic,\u00a0said the lung association\u2019s Darcie Warren.<\/p>\n
Writing a policy brief \u2014 a condensed summary of facts and recommendations based on current research \u2014 requires the specialized skill set that public health students are developing. So Warren was immediately interested when Linnea Laestadius, a 51ÁÔÆæ assistant professor of public health, offered to have graduate students focus on these issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was interested to know if the academic literature uncovered in the students\u2019 research would align with our goals,\u201d Warren said, \u201cand the students\u2019 work confirmed that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolicy briefs are a way for people to make a credible pitch for change and, if the research is done well, it will guide you,\u201d said Langston Verdin, a public health graduate student who was one of four students who wrote a brief on vaping for the American Lung Association. His collaborators included urban studies student Nelson Sederstrom, public health student Angela Thao and nursing student Linda Xiong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project was great for me because I could work on a topic in class that I also work on in my job,\u201d said Verdin, who is employed full time as a program leader at the Children\u2019s Health Alliance of Wisconsin. \u201cThe alliance manages seven different initiatives related to child health, partnering with hundreds of other organizations. And one of the projects I lead is the Wisconsin Asthma Coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience gave the students the chance to dig into a real-world public health problem and see the results, Warren said.<\/p>\n
For example, the group\u2019s policy brief recommended taxing e-cigarettes as a way to curb their use by youth. The brief also recommended licensing vape shops and increasing funding for tobacco prevention programs.<\/p>\n
Notably, Gov. Tony Evers\u2019 recently proposed budget includes a new e-cigarette excise tax, and an additional $3.2 million for cessation programs such as the Wisconsin Quit Line. Information the students uncovered in their research points to how essential the funding is. They found that, even if this proposed increase is supported by the state Legislature, Wisconsin would still be funding tobacco prevention and control programing at just 15 percent of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.<\/p>\n
Through their research, the students learned a lot more about how serious tobacco disparities are, said Laestadius, who also has offered student help in producing policy briefs for other organizations, such as the Milwaukee Health Department and Community Advocates. The students also learned the importance of clear communication in policy work, she added.<\/p>\n
Verdin said that he has read policy briefs from other organizations, but this was his first experience producing one.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we were working directly with Lung Association, the pressure was on to do a thorough job,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to make sure the contents of the brief stand up to criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the students\u2019 impressive work, the association plans to host two master\u2019s students from the Zilber School as interns this summer, Warren said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vaping is increasingly common among teens in Wisconsin but largely outside the reach of government regulation. Exploring the issue benefited both 51ÁÔÆæ students and the American Lung Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":69968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[249,250],"section":[135,137],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[260,284],"uwmnews-feed":[153,166],"class_list":["post-69967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-engagement","tag-student-success","section-health","section-public-health","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","related-coverage-community-engagement","related-coverage-health-wellness","uwmnews-feed-graduate","uwmnews-feed-public-health"],"yoast_head":"\n