The fight against the vaping epidemic continues in Northwest Ohio.
The American Heart Association is investing millions of dollars into long-term studies aimed at rooting out the dangers.
This comes at a time where more and more young people are able to vape in secret because of how unrecognizable those e-cig devices have become.
"Our studies are showing 1 in 4 high school students are actively using a vape or e-cigarettes, and one in 20 middle school students are using vape or e-cigarettes," said Sara Hegarty, the executive director with the American Heart Association.
Some of those devices are pictured above. They include one that looks like a make-up pencil. The others look like a USB, a key fob and also an Apple watch.
Liz Young, the marketing coordinator and administrative assistant for Sylvania Community Action Team, says she has an idea why they are becoming so common.
"I think it's alarming that a lot of the parents are vaping themselves, and our children model our behavior as adults. So when we see a lot of the adults vaping - and a lot of them are vaping because it was marketed as a much safer, effective way to get their nicotine as opposed to smoking," said Young.
However, according to Dr. James Tita, the chief medical officer at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center, the dangers have already proven to be very real.
"Since the fall, there have been a rash of vaping associated lung injury cases. These are folks, typically teenagers. Most of these cases occur in people that are less than 30 years old. They develop a pneumonia-like illness, it seems like a flu-like illness, and in some cases can even be fatal," said Dr. Tita.
For these reasons, The American Heart Association has decided to put up a fight.
"We have launched a $20 million initiative to end the lies around the teen vaping epidemic. It's a three- prong approach. So we are taking some of the money and investing it into researchers, into discovering what are the long term effects of e-cigarette and vaping use. Because we haven't had a generation who have used these e-cigarettes all the way to adulthood," said Hegarty.
The money will also go towards a website called Quit Lying, which will debunk some of the false information about vaping.
The third involves efforts to change policies at all levels of government.
Meanwhile here at home, SCAT is trying to make parents aware.
"One of the things we do is couple times a year we have what is called a community conversation, which is like a town hall atmosphere, and we invite the public in, parents especially, educators as well and educate them on what tools are out there that kids are getting into," said Young.
All of the efforts combined are all in the hope to save future generations.
"We really don't know the long-term side effects of vaping. I mean, it's a relatively new phenomenon. And any funding toward research and identifying and clarifying what those risks are, I think is very very important," said Dr. Tita.
The American Heart Association has also launched two research-backed resources to help parents navigate through difficult conversations with their teen about the vaping epidemic.
You can click on these links to visit the websites allmentalhealth.org/vaping and talkvaping.allmentalhealth.org.