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Schools Warned of Ecig Dangers

New York district superintendent warns schools of the dangers of vaping.

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Homework is always a contentious issue with students, teachers and parents. It becomes a particularly touchy subject when the man in charge of a whole district of schools is telling parents to “do their homework” about electronic cigarettes. Peter Blake, the controversial superintendent for Rome (in the state of New York) builds on the surgeon general's ridiculous comments.

“My blog this week is not a philosophical thought, rather an attempt to inform our community about a reality and a concern for our youth,” writes Blake. If there’s one thing we expect from an education system it’s that it conveys truth and accurate information to students and parents. So, when the man in charge (of an American equivalent of a local education authority) speaks directly to parents, it carries weight.

Unfortunately, what he has to say isn’t exactly well considered. “This past week, the Wall Street Journal and many other major media outlets of reputation,” continues the superintendent, “have released articles in relation to the surgeon general's most recent comments.” By calling them ‘outlets of reputation’ he is attempting to legitimise the skewed opinion they were reporting on.

Vaping, states the man who’s not done any in depth reading of the subject, is “the most significant health concern facing our youngsters in our society today.” Apparently, “one of the most alarming things about these devices is that people still do not realise that they contain nicotine.” It’s obvious really as every juice vendor will happily just pull a random bottle from the shelf and never ask what strength the purchaser requires.

The man who says parents should “do some more homework on the e-cigarette prior to thinking that it is a safe alternative for anything” clearly hasn’t done a lot himself. Because then, the ex-music teacher who claims to be able to “think outside the box”, takes total leave of his senses: “Of greater concern that isn't discussed as much about e-cigs is that sellers are constantly finding ways to 'lace' the syrups with other products that are much more addictive, altering, and dangerous than nicotine.”

Research, Mr Blake, is more than skim reading one newspaper article (regardless of what the source is). Research is the kind of thing that reveals an education district in turmoil under his new leadership. It reveals there are administrators being arrested and deeply held concerns over his recent bankruptcy. The man responsible for millions of dollars of public money is now a bankrupt for the second time in his life – hardly a good track record for fiscal responsibility.

But it matters little to us that he allegedly “knows nothing about Rome and its community,” what is frightening though is his lack of knowledge of harm reduction and his willingness to place smoking teens in danger. Hopefully a vaping parent will be able to assist him in understand the truth.

Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.

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