UMD Students Share Campus Vaping Study Results

The needs assessment was part of an awareness campaign about vaping called "Nic Free@UMD", which was also a class project. The campaign was designed to prevent or decrease the use of e-cigarettes in the UMD community.

The students in charge of the campaign shared a presentation about vaping and the dangers it presents, as well as how UMD is working to combat the problem.

The students say the recent increase in EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping Associated Lung Injury) is a big reason they decided to focus on vaping.

"Before everything really started happening in the news, we knew that it was a hot topic, however, then things started to happen. Deaths started to happen, and the EVALI cases started to rise, so it was just a very timely project that we did want to address, and we wanted to help educate the community as to why it is a problem," said Melissa Peirson, a senior in the Public Health program at UMD.

The results of the survey are:

• 19% of students reported e-cigarette use
• 46% of students said tobacco advertising doesn't affect them
• 50% of students said they weren't able to list at least even one resource in the UMD community for nicotine cessation
• 72% of students perceived e-cigarettes to be cessation products
• Students perceived e-cigarettes to be less harmful than commercial cigarettes

The CDC says in the U.S. there have been over 2,172 cases of EVALI in 49 states, along with 42 deaths in 24 states.