Washington Breathes and the Rutgers Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco are asking educators to complete a simple survey to help us gather photos of products and information about the amounts of e-cigarettes, vape pens, cigarettes, oral nicotine
pouches, and other commercial tobacco products from students that have accumulated in your school or school district.
Together, we are gathering information about the brand types and quantity of commercial tobacco products that are confiscated in middle and high schools to inform our work to prevent youth commercial tobacco use and reduce the burden of tobacco waste
on schools.
School staff can complete the survey here: Confiscated Tobacco Products Survey for WA.
This flyer and FAQ sheet provide more information about the simple online survey. Please feel free to share this survey with contacts at other schools.
The Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco at Rutgers will share photos in its online database, identified only by state. Experts at Rutgers will examine and catalog the images
to identify the product type, brand name, flavorings, and other information like nicotine content, if possible. This will inform their research to understand emerging trends in nicotine and tobacco product use among youth.
Washington Breathes will utilize the aggregated survey data to inform community leaders and policymakers about the challenges that schools face with youth commercial tobacco use and with managing commercial tobacco product waste. We will avoid describing
the data in any way that identifies an individual school. We are interested in any measurement of the quantity of products that works for school staff. In the survey we suggest measuring the weight or volume, but if that’s too difficult, it
also works to count the number of products. Actual weight can help us estimate the disposal cost burden that this is putting on schools and/or their local government.
Frequently Asked Questions
View the document.
We can’t determine if the product contains tobacco or marijuana or other substances. Should we still share it with you?
We will take photos of whatever you have. Our team will identify the products after they’re shared.
Do you only want us to share info about vapes?
We’re interested in ALL types of nicotine and tobacco products–pouches, cigars, cigarillos, e-cigarettes–whatever you see out there.
How often should we upload our photos?
As frequently as is convenient for your team.
How do we safely dispose of the products we receive?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a great resource that schools and individuals can use called How to Safely Dispose of E-Cigarettes.
We don’t confiscate products from students, they voluntarily turn them in. Do you still want to see those products?
Absolutely! We used the term confiscate because it resonated with teachers, but we want to see and hear about any of the tobacco products you’re seeing in schools.
The survey has options for students in grades 6-12. What about younger grades?
If you're collecting products from students in younger grades, we would like to see them. There's an open-response question where you can add more detail about the age groups at the school.
For further information or questions, please contact Margaret Shield, PhD, Coalition Organizer, at Washington Breathes.
Washington Breathes is a statewide coalition of organizations and individuals working to eliminate the harms of commercial tobacco use.