Jakarta. Vape is gaining popularity among students, and the Education and Teachers Association, or P2G, has started to take note of the phenomenon. 

P2G recently warned of the adverse effects of vaping on the learning process. Smoking e-cigarettes is detrimental to the student’s health and concentration, as it may cause respiratory issues, anxiety, as well as damage to brain function.

The Indonesian Pulmonary Doctors Association (PDPI) has also warned that vaping is equally dangerous as smoking conventional cigarettes. 

Both contain nicotine that causes addiction, cancer-causing substances (carcinogens), and inflammatory components. Vaping indoors can lead to higher levels of indoor air pollution. Not only is it harmful to the vaper, but vaping can also affect those in the vicinity.

But despite the dangers of vaping, many permissive parents are letting their children smoke e-cigarettes. These parents are under the impression that traditional cigarettes are more dangerous than vapes. The students also tend to follow trends and copy their idols who popularize vapes as a better replacement for conventional cigarettes.

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The P2G urged the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Education Ministry to ramp up the supervision of the students so they do not carry or use vape. Likewise, parents and teachers should also make sure that the students are not smoking e-cigs.

“Teachers and the student affairs department should intensify searches for vapes at schools,” P2G’s national coordinator Satriawan Salim told Beritasatu.com over the weekend.

Satriawan also called for schools to hold seminars about the negative consequences of using vapes. Schools should also make the negative impacts of vapes a hidden curriculum.

Satriawan also urged the ministry to issue a circular letter to schools and ban students from bringing, using, consuming, and selling vape by intensifying supervision in school and coordinating with the parents. 

In 2015, the Education Ministry issued a regulation on non-smoking zones in school areas. 

“The regulation aims to create a school environment that is clean, healthy, and cigarette-free,” the ministry’s spokesman Anang Ristanto also told Beritasatu.com on Saturday.