The need for our community to take action to protect youth from tobacco is more urgent than ever. As principal at Duluth East High School, I am working with a team to address the epidemic of e-cigarette use in our school, as well as schools across our region and state. We have held sessions to present information to our families. We have presented training to our staff, and we constantly are working to educate our students on the dangers and harmful effects of e-cigarettes and tobacco use.

Despite teen e-cigarette use increasingly being discussed on the news and in schools, I believe it is much more prevalent than most people think. E-cigarettes are easy for students to get and challenging for teachers and administrators to detect. The sleek appearance of the devices and the fruity or sweet smell of the flavored cartridges make vaping easily concealable. Nearly every day at East we confiscate these devices. Some days we confiscate more than a dozen.

These factors are also why the number of teens using e-cigarettes has skyrocketed over the last year. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, teen tobacco use increased for the first time in 17 years, and one in five high schoolers uses e-cigarettes. Nationally, youth e-cigarette use has reached epidemic levels, with a 78 percent increase in high school e-cigarette use from 2017 to 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey. This prompted the U.S. Surgeon General to declare e-cigarette use among young people an epidemic. The Surgeon General issued an advisory in December.

What many of our students and even parents don't know is that the majority of e-cigarettes contains significant amounts of nicotine. Users unknowingly are becoming addicted. This year none of the liquid we confiscated had zero nicotine. In fact, most of the bottles or pods contained the highest level of nicotine available for purchase.

In teens, studies have shown that nicotine can inhibit brain development and increases the risk of developing psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairment in later life. In meetings with administrators, after being caught using in school, many students report they know it's bad but are so addicted they cannot go hours without using. They tell us they do not know how to quit.

We need to do everything we can right now to end teen vaping and tobacco use. That is why in November the Duluth School Board signed a resolution of support for a law to raise the legal selling age of tobacco products to 21 in Duluth. This law, nicknamed "Tobacco 21," would have a tremendous impact on the e-cigarette epidemic in our schools. Seniors who are 18 would no longer be able to purchase e-cigarettes for themselves and their friends.

Please encourage our City Council to pass the Tobacco 21 ordinance today at its 7 p.m. meeting to protect this new generation from the death and disease associated with tobacco use.

Danette Seboe is principal of Duluth East High School.