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We don’t typically talk about vaping in teacher prep programs. And yet, as we all know, vaping now impacts the classroom experience in most middle and high schools. The practice is so prevalent among tweens and teens that the United States Surgeon General declared e-cigarettes among youth an epidemic in 2018.

Teachers nationwide worry about student use of e-cigarettes but are unsure about how to address the issue. We asked Amy Taylor, Chief of Community Engagement for Truth Initiative, a nonprofit committed to ending tobacco use and nicotine addiction, to weigh in on educators’ most pressing questions about vaping.

“So many of my students have told me that it isn’t as bad as cigarettes, and they don’t want to quit. How can we help these kids understand the actual impact of vaping?”

Many students don’t realize that vapes—specifically, the liquid inside e-cigarette cartridges—usually contain nicotine. Some have very high