Alternative Electronic Nicotine Use Behaviors: Dripping and Nicotine Salts

This Empower Series event is presented by The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth and Prevention Connections.

Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death. Tobacco use is established primarily during adolescence and young adulthood, with 99% first trying by age 26. Despite declines in adolescent cigarette smoking, overall tobacco product use by high school students actually increased in recent years. This is largely due to dramatic increases in electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use (“vaping”), the most common nicotine/tobacco product used among adolescents. In fact, the increase in past-month nicotine vaping by 12th graders from 2017 (11.0%) to 2018 (20.9%) was the largest for any substance tracked by the national Monitoring the Future (MTF) study in over 40 years and continued to grow in 2019 to a record 1 in 4 (25.4%) 12th graders.

Vaping can take numerous forms, including dripping, a practice linked to higher levels of carcinogen exposure. In addition, nicotine salt products, such as Juul and Puff Bars, were large drivers of the dramatic increases in youth uptake of e-cigarettes. This is likely due to their ability to allow the inhalation of large levels of nicotine without the aversiveness associated with standard nicotine products. This presentation will review both dripping and nicotine salts.

Learning objectives:

• Describe e-cigarette use prevalence for youth over past seven years
• Explain risks associated with dripping and other associated practices
• Explain how nicotine salts may affect use patterns

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Paul T. Harrell, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School in the Division of Community Health and Research in the Department of Pediatrics with a history of training from American University, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Moffitt Cancer Center. He has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His research focuses on understanding substance use, particularly tobacco use, in experimental and epidemiological models. Dr. Harrell conducts research with a team of graduate and practicum students, staff members, and volunteers at the Behavioral Epidemiology and Pharmacology (BEP) Laboratory in Community Health and Research, a division of EVMS Pediatrics.

Dr. Harrell is also the co-principal investigator for a research grant funded by VFHY titled, A Social Ecological Approach to Alternative Tobacco Education, at Eastern Virginia Medical School.