Description
This program challenges the belief, that e-cigarettes and hookahs are risk-free, healthy alternatives to traditional cigarettes. It shows how in a typical hookah session a smoker inhales 100 times the amount of toxin-laden smoke that is inhaled smoking a cigarette. While e-cigarettes don’t contain the carcinogens that come from burning tobacco, the vapor does contain highly addictive nicotine as well as other chemicals whose health risks we are only beginning to understand. The program looks at how e-cigarettes have become a multi-billion dollar industry that uses the same deceptive advertising techniques they have been used with cigarettes.
The DVD contains a separate four-minute bonus video on the dangers of vaping marijuana and alcohol.
Includes: 20-minute video, printable teacher’s resource book, and student handouts with pre/post tests.
Sample Video Clip:
Reviews:
Gr 9 Up- Hosts Samara Amat and Max Rein do a fine job of walking viewers through assorted facts while correcting erroneous beliefs held by teens and college students. They describe, with the help of easily understood graphics, how a hookah session can lead to a smoker inhaling 100 puffs (vs. 10 for a regular cigarette), while each inhale takes in 500 milliliters of smoke (compared with 50 for a cigarette). Amat and Rein point out the dangers of such a large amount of second-hand smoke on others and the misconception that the water in the hookah cleanses the smoke. They further explain how the charcoal used to keep the tobacco burning creates carbon monoxide and other chemicals that can irritate lung tissue. As for e-cigarettes, they note that heated liquid nicotine in vapor form is still an extremely addictive substance. The amount varies tremendously from brand to brand, and it has the potential to alter teen brain chemistry in a way that may increase the risk of further addiction. Additionally, many of the e-cigarette flavors have no nicotine, but they contain other chemicals, such as diacetyl, which has been linked to what’s known as popcorn lung, an irreversible condition. VERDICT This is an easily understood and evenhanded program and a good choice for health education curricula.
–John R. Clark, formerly at Harland Public Library, ME
School Library Journal
Designed to help viewers make informed decisions about smoking products, this concise guidance program combines factual information from the hosts with interviews of users, backed by detailed diagrams. Although various new products are currently advertised as “safe” alternatives to cigarettes, Everything You Need to Know attacks that myth, starting off with a look at the hookah, a popular option for high school and college students that originated hundreds of years ago in the Middle East. While a participant giggles that although she knew cigarettes were bad, “no one’s really ever told you not to smoke hookah,” the studies cited here state that a smoker inhales 100 times the smoke of a cigarette during an average hookah session (a visualization with a soda bottle is used to illustrate the difference in volume, while it is also noted that the water doesn’t filter the smoke, which carries toxic chemicals). Examining the relatively new phenomenon of electronic cigarettes and vaping-both options heat liquids without burning smoke (and consumers are lured by the myriad of flavors and varieties)-the program points out these alternatives still carry addictive nicotine, and no long-term studies yet exist. Also touching on the shady similarities between current marketing and 1950s and ‘60s cigarette advertising (before the related health problems, including emphysema and lung cancer, were widely known), extras include a bonus segment of vaping marijuana and alcohol, as well as a PDF teacher’s guide. Recommended. Aud: J,H,C,P. (J. Williams-Wood)
