N.V.T, 16, from Thach That district, Hanoi, began using e-cigarettes one year ago. Recently, his friend introduced a new kind of cigarette, telling him that it is much better.

“When he gave me the new kind of cigarette, he did not say what was inside. I thought it was like other kinds of cigarettes so I tried it. But I suddenly felt I was in a whirl. When I woke up, I saw myself in the hospital,” T recalled.

After two days of treatment, T was still at risk of convulsions and needed further monitoring. His mother said this was the first time that her son had been hospitalized. “His friends told me that after smoking, his situation became serious. They brought him to the local hospital and then he was transferred to Bach Mai Hospital,” she said.

T is not alone at the central-level Bach Mai Hospital. Earlier, the hospital received a 20-year old girl who was in a deep coma caused by e-cigarette smoking.

Nguyen Trung Nguyen, Director of the Poison Control Center at Bach Mai Hospital, said the sample of e-cigarette was tested to find ADB-BUTINACA, a next-generation drug inside.

Toxins in school

The number of students using e-cigarette with toxins is larger than people think. The serious problem is that it is easy to get cigarettes. Students can go to bubble tea or tea shops not far from schools to use e-cigarettes. Some students even smoke an e-cigarette right after leaving the school gates.

VietNamNet reporters once followed three students at a high school in Binh Chanh district, HCM City, in late October. After leaving the school, they rode a motorbike. The two sitting behind used a Pod and it emitted smoke. They gave the Pod to each other until the motorbike stopped at a bubble tea shop, where they joined other students with many e-cigarettes on the table.

The shop was full of people of different ages. Young clients talked about the cigarette’s flavor and smoke of the cigarettes they once tried.

N.H.L.Q, a student at a secondary school in BinhTan district, HCMC, said that not only high school students but many secondary-school students used e-cigarettes. “Some of them smoke in school and some smoke right in classrooms,” Q said.

According to Q, students bring e-cigarettes that have the shape of lipsticks or pens to school and hide the products in toilets. During  break time, they go to the toilets to smoke. Some students stand outside the toilets to be sure that no one discovers their smoking. In some cases, students smoke cigarettes in classrooms.

“They mostly smoke before or after the lesson when teachers are not in the classroom. I once saw a male student who smoked during the lesson because he was too addicted. When the teacher wrote something  on the blackboard, he smoked, and when he finished smoking, he would swallow the smoke inside,” Q said.

A recently published study by the Vietnam Public Health Association shows that 7.3 percent (9.1 percent for men and 4.6 percent for women) of people aged 15-24 in Hanoi and HCM City smoked e-cigarettes in 2020. Most e-cigarette users were aged 18-24.

Linh Trang