As Green Hope students walked around the hallways in November and December, they could see a variety of anti-vaping posters hung up on bulletin boards informing students about the health risks associated with vaping. Two Green Hope students, Ben Lu (‘24) and Abhinav Gurram (‘24) are the backbone of this initiative. Through their campaign, they hope to create a vape-free environment conducive to success and learning.
In an interview with the GH Falcon, Gurram and Lu expressed their desire to address an issue that they see prevalent among his peers.
“I’d always seen people vaping in the bathrooms, and it’s become a very prevalent issue across Wake County. We wanted to do something to combat it,” Gurram said.
The high frequency of vaping among Green Hope students motivated Lu to collaborate with Gurram in educating the increasingly young students who are exposed to vaping. “I’ve even seen middle schoolers vaping and that’s when I really felt urged to take action and protect our youth.” Lu said.
To promote their anti-vaping initiative, Lu and Gurram designed posters to be placed around the school. The posters informed students about the health effects of vaping and highlighted the story of Daniel Ament, a 17-year-old who underwent a life-changing double lung transplant due to vaping since his sophomore year. To create these posters and advertise them around Green Hope, Lu and Gurram reached out to Principal Alison Cleveland, who expressed interest in working with Lu and Gurram on the campaign.
Lu and Gurram connected with various organizations across the Triangle such as the Post Center For Health Education in Raleigh and the Wake County Tobacco Coalition which prioritizes its goal of preventing youth from using tobacco through community intervention programs and the formation of policy changes. They pitched their idea to the organization and gained a sense of direction in how to begin this initiative.
For decades, smoking has been romanticized within the media, from The Outsiders to Grease. But in recent years, vaping has been portrayed as a “cool” but less harmful alternative within media pieces catered to teenagers. Lu and Gurram expressed that they wanted to see a change in this skewered narrative around vaping, and alter students’ perspective of vaping to something that is harmful rather than trendy.
“People think vaping is cool- when they see their friends vaping, they think it’s something and often feel pressured to partake in vaping themselves, even if deep down they know it’s not right. We want to change this,” they said.
This widespread narrative amongst high school students created a vaping epidemic. In recent years, Wake County high schools experienced several false fire alarms due to the increased smoking in restrooms. During the 2022-2023 school year, the Raleigh Fire Department responded to four false fire alarms in one week.
The pair wishes to see a stronger emphasis on the negative consequences of tobacco and vaping, and in general, more discourse and awareness about the prevalence of vaping and drug use amongst hgh school students. “We want to see a push for education about the harmful effects of tobacco to be offered within Physical Education curriculums and easily available to all students. There should not be any students who are left out/do not receive this education” Lu said.
Lu and Gurram are also collaborating with researchers at Duke University to create a product that works similarly to a breathalyzer that gauges how healthy one’s lungs are. “Faculty in schools can use this device to see whether a student has been vaping and how long. For students, it’s more of an opportunity to truly see how vaping has affected their lungs,” Gurram said. In the future, they aspire to expand their initiative into other schools in Wake County and
Lu and Gurram have high hopes for their campaign and emphasize how optimistic they are that their endeavors will succeed in reaching students.
