Talking Points for Speaking to Your Child About Smoking/Vaping

Bosworth & Associates is an experienced local insurance provider that has built a foundation of trust with our clients in Tyler, Texas, for over three generations.  We offer a wide range of insurance to the community to ensure all their needs are covered.

• Renter’s insurance
• Homeowner’s insurance policies
• Rental Insurance
• Medical Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Car and Truck Insurance

To name a few.

Our priorities to our clients are not just to offer low-cost insurance premiums and deductibles for our customers. We also believe it’s important to educate our client community on what your insurance covers and how aspects of your lifestyle can impact your insurance premiums.

Many people know smoking cigarettes can impact their insurance. However, so can smoking e-cigarettes. More importantly, smoking e-cigarettes can impact your health and that of your child.

It’s back-to-school season, and parents of young people in high school face a whole range of new challenges and issues than parents did a couple of decades ago. Are you familiar with e-cigarettes and vaping? Even if you’re not, guaranteed your teenager is, and that they’ve faced pressure to try or start smoking.

You may have had the conversation with your child about smoking, but did that conversation include the dangers of e-cigarettes? Talking to your child about smoking and vaping isn’t an easy conversation, but it also doesn’t have to be hard.

Start by familiarizing yourself with the facts:

• E-cigarettes have nicotine in them the same as cigarettes. Nicotine is a highly addictive and harmful chemical that causes millions of American deaths every year. Not only that, but nicotine can also cause harm to adolescent brains and lungs that are still developing.

Many teens and parents know that e-cigarettes contain nicotine, but they don’t know that they also potentially contain other harmful additives that can damage the lungs, esophagus, and heart.

• According to cdc.gov: “E-cigarettes are electronic devices that heat a liquid and produce aerosol or mix of small particular in the air.”
• When someone uses an e-cigarette, it’s most often referred to as “vaping.”
• An e-cigarette is composed of three main pieces: a battery, a heating element, and something to hold the liquid. From there, the different shapes, sizes, and forms of e-cigs are virtually endless. Some look like regular tobacco smoking methods such as cigarettes or cigars. Others are disguised as household items so as to be less noticeable. Still, other e-cigarettes come in different and varied smoking devices.
• As of August 2016, the federal government has begun regulating the use and sale of e-cigarettes and their components. Especially the marketing and sales to young people.
• The marketing of e-cigarettes is targeted directly to young people in many instances. As are the various flavors, which tend to be sweet, fruity, and candy-like. Where many teens might be turned off by the flavor, stinky breath, and smelly hands and fingers associated with cigarette smoking, vaping smells and tastes like candy, making it much more dangerous.

Teenagers who become addicted to nicotine early in life are much more likely to continue smoking, greatly increasing their health risks—and making for more expensive health and life insurance premiums.

• When it comes to your insurance, most health and life insurance quotes, policies, and premiums come down to your age, lifestyle, and overall health. Because vaping uses a nicotine product, it could impact your health and life insurance negatively. Anyone who smokes nicotine products will, more than likely, pay higher insurance premiums. This is because, despite cigarette and vaping companies arguing the contrary, studies have proven that smoking them can compromise your overall health and could lead to illness and/or death.

Heart disease and cancer are the two major impacts of smoking and/or vaping. A recent study by the American College of Cardiology showed that people who vape are over 50% more likely to develop deadly heart disease. In addition, both vaping oils and nicotine contain chemicals that are proven to cause cancer in users.

When it comes to talking to your teen about the dangers of vaping, stick to facts that are unarguable.

Be a listener. One of the most important parts of speaking to your child about smoking and vaping is to keep the conversation judgement-free. Listen to any concerns or frustrations they may have.

Talk to your child early and keep the conversation open. Don’t let them feel like they can’t talk to you if they’re smoking and want help quitting or if they feel pressured by peers to smoke.

If they feel empowered saying, “No,” when the time comes, they’re much less likely to take up smoking nicotine products. If they’ve already started smoking, help them find ways and support to quit before it becomes an issue.

The cdc.gov website has great information and links for parental support when it comes to educating and helping your child. The push to educate the public—especially young people and their families—and prevent the use of e-cigarettes has gained national momentum.

Initiatives such as “The Truth Initiative” and “The Real Cost” seek to educate teens about the dangers and potential life-threatening repercussions of using e-cigarettes. These campaigns don’t just focus on schools and other traditional means of education. They also use social media and other digital platforms to spread the word about the dangers of e-cigs.

Being a young person today comes with a huge weight of choices, options, and hard decisions.

As parents and community members, the best we can do is educate and empower our teens to do what’s best for their futures.