Vaping: It’s more common in rural areas than in cities

VINTON — Somewhat surprisingly, national data show that smoking and vaping are more common among youth in rural areas than in urban areas.

The 2021 Iowa Youth Survey for Benton County, for example, showed 41 percent of 11th-grade students in the county said it was “very easy” to obtain vape or e-cigarette products, with 28 percent saying the same about cigarettes.

Those percentages are about the same in the more urban Linn County, where 43 percent of 11th-graders reported “very easy” access to vapes and 21 percent to cigarettes.

However, Benton County students reported a higher rate of tobacco/vaping usage than those in Linn County, according to the survey.

In Benton County, 13 percent of 11th-graders reported using tobacco products, with 22 percent reporting using e-cigarette or vaping products.

In Linn County, 5 percent of 11th-graders reported using tobacco and 14 percent reporting using e-cigarette of vaping products.

Statewide, 10 percent of 11th graders reported using tobacco, with 24 percent using vaping products.

Vaping devices are battery-operated devices that people use to inhale an aerosol that usually contains nicotine and flavorings, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Factors in play

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There is no one reason why vaping and smoking are more prevalent in rural areas than in cities, according to Mark Vander Weg, a professor and head of the University of Iowa’s community and behavioral health department.

Some potential factors, he said, are that rural areas have less access to resources that help people stop smoking, and rural areas also have fewer restrictions on people smoking in public.

Vaping is more common than smoking because it’s been marketed as a safer, healthier alternative to traditional tobacco use, he said.

And while vaping is less harmful than smoking and can help smokers quit tobacco, the full scope of vaping health risks is not yet known, Vander Weg said.

For example, vape products have fewer toxins than tobacco, but there is a higher level of heavy metals in e-cigarettes than in traditional cigarettes, he said.

Vape products also are easy to find, with gas stations and convenience stores carrying the products, Vander Weg said. This makes it easier for underage individuals to access vape products and increase overall usage percentages, he said.

In 2019, the federal minimum age required to purchase any tobacco products ― including vapes ― was raised from 18 to 21.

Vaping in rural schools

Vaping has become a somewhat commonplace issue in rural school districts.

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Kyle Koeppen, superintendent of the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District in Benton County, said his district — with around 1,500 students — doesn’t see cigarette use by students, but it does see vaping.

The Vinton-Shellsburg schools, as well as those in Williamsburg and Belle Plaine, have vape detectors in restrooms to deter and catch students who are vaping.

Koeppen said the district also provides students with information on vaping and tobacco in middle school and high school health classes.

The district also has a plan to help students caught vaping with any issues that may be going on in their lives, Koeppen said.

“Just from the school side of things, we know that substance abuse is really a mask for a variety of other things going on,” he said.

Students caught vaping at school also face stricter, more consistent discipline than in the past, Koeppen said. The first offense for vaping on school grounds is an automatic five-day suspension along with a long-term plan to help the student, he said.

Public health

In addition to the actions taken by individual schools, Benton County also takes preventive and educational measures to address underage smoking and vaping.

The county’s public health department partners with the Area Substance Abuse Council, which provides substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery services in Linn, Jackson, Jones, Clinton, Benton, Delaware and Dubuque counties.

In Benton County, ASAC has conducted studies to gauge the impact of local vape and tobacco stores in communities. It has partnered with local law enforcement for compliance checks, and it has provided educational services to youth and their parents, according to Grace Schmidt, the county’s public health director.

“As a public health department, there is education and training that we provide, but we also really like to rely on our partners who are experts in specific areas, whether that's different aspects of health promotion and health education,” Schmidt said.

Vape shop owner

Aftab Afridi is the founder and owner of several Pink Clouds Smoke Shops in Vinton, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Ottumwa, with members of Afridi’s family working in the shops.

Afridi said he opened a Pink Clouds shop in Vinton in 2022 because that’s where a number of his family members are from.

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While business and profits are lower in Vinton than in his three Cedar Rapids shops, the rent for the shop in Vinton is much lower, Afridi said.

Afridi said the Vinton location helps residents save money because they don’t have to make the nearly 45- minute drive to Cedar Rapids to purchase products.

Things are calmer, too, in Vinton than in Cedar Rapids, where Pink Clouds shops have reported break-ins, Afridi said.

However, the Vinton location is not without its challenges, he said. The most common issues are customers becoming upset when they are refused service or customers attempting to buy hundreds of dollars of THC gummies or other products, seemingly with the intent to distribute to underage individuals.

Those issues, Afridi said, are reported to police.

Compliance checks

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Vinton Police Chief Ted Paxton confirmed those reports but said they have not been a burden on the department.

None of the 10 stores selling tobacco or vaping products in the city of 5,000 has failed its compliance checks, and the department “stays on top of concerns,” he said.

“We’ve had concerns from people in town commenting that they sell to underage kids, but we've done our due diligence on compliance checks, and they passed all those that we've executed on those establishments,” Paxton said.

The Vinton police department also helps educate retailers on their right to refuse service to anyone, especially if store employees suspect a customer intends to sell the products to minors, Paxton said.

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