Mount Prospect Village Board To Discuss Policy In Near Future

After elected officials in Arlington Heights this month raised the minimum age from 18 to 21 to purchase tobacco and alternative nicotine products, Mount Prospect officials will soon hold their own discussion on whether to do the same.

According to Mount Prospect resident Jenny Kustra-Quinn and Prospect High School Dean Mark Taylor, some students at Prospect High School continue to “vape” and it has become a major concern.

As opposed to regular cigarettes, the liquid inside “vaping” devices usually contains nicotine and flavoring, in addition to other additives. Those devices produce a vapor that is inhaled and exhaled by the user. According to the Center on Addiction, “The term is used because e-cigarettes do not produce tobacco smoke, but rather an aerosol, often mistaken for water vapor, that actually consists of fine particles.”

Kustra, who has one child in Dist. 57, another at Prospect, and a third that graduated from Prospect, said vaping is a problem of “epidemic proportions” at the high school and Lincoln Middle School, both in Mount Prospect.

She said many younger children are obtaining vaping devices from friends that are 18, or siblings who can legally and easily buy them.

She said she recently spoke to the owner of a 7-Eleven in town who told her that is the main product teenagers desire. They can obtain the devices as easily as buying a pack of gum.

Kustra-Quinn suggested the village reach out to Link Together, which performs drug and alcohol awareness education at Dist. 214 schools and has been involved in the vaping issue. She said they were the ones who conducted a parent session at Hersey High School this past fall, and were involved in speaking to the Arlington Heights Village Board.

“I know a lot of high school kids that are doing this and this epidemic is of astounding proportions,” she said. “I am blown away by how many are vaping.”

She said completely banning the sale of vaping devices in Mount Prospect is not realistic.

“I know adults use it to stop smoking cigarettes and I think that is great,” she said. “It is better than adults smoking for 40 years. I would like to see Mount Prospect do what Arlington Heights did, and make it so you have to be 21 and show identification. It would not be full proof, but it will make it more difficult for kids.”

Of the approximate 2,000 students at Prospect, Taylor said he did not have a ballpark number on how many students are vaping, but did say it is “very prevalent” in the school. Some students even vape inside the building such as bathrooms.

“They are very slick devices and can fit in a wallet or sleeve,” he said. “Vaping is just as bad as smoking and there is no benefit. It does not belong in people’s lungs.”

Taylor said if school staff finds a student vaping, they will address the matter immediately. He said there are consequences students face if caught vaping just as much as if they were caught smoking cigarettes.

Taylor said he has been working with Link Together for the past five years. Every other year, they perform a survey and ask students various questions to determine if they are participating in any activity that could be harmful to their health.

Additionally, Taylor said there is plenty of education in the school so students are aware of the consequences of vaping and smoking cigarettes.

Taylor said the school would like to see Mount Prospect adopt an ordinance, similar to Arlington Heights, that raises the age to 21 to purchase tobacco and alternative nicotine products.

Mount Prospect Village Manager Michael Cassady said the village board was recently provided with research on this matter and anticipates discussing the issue at a committee of the whole meeting within the next 30 days.

He said the village board could consider whether to increase the age to 21, or whether to make it illegal to possess for those under the age limit. He said those are two policy issues the board will contemplate, but he is not sure which way they would go at this time.

Currently, it is illegal in Mount Prospect for anyone under the age of 18 to possess or purchase any vaping device.