Medical Ethicist Art Caplan heads the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, and co-host of the Everyday Ethics podcast. He joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan for Boston Public Radio.
Highlights from the interview include:
New studies show teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to become addicted to regular cigarettes:
There’s been a lot of argument about whether E-cigarettes get your off of smoking, as an aid of ending tobacco use, or just a different way to get nicotine or other things delivered to you. I’m afraid they’re starting to point toward the latter: We’re going to have to start restricting vaping and E-cigarettes in the way that we do tobacco. They’re clearly gateways to tobacco use for some people—I’m not sure the data is all that good that shows kids are getting off of smoking, or stopping smoking when they use vaping as an exit strategy. I think these tiny nicotine delivery things just aren’t good for you.
Are they better than real cigarettes? Is it a better alternative?
I don’t think nicotine exposure for kids is a good thing. It’s probably a little better because you don’t get any of the tobacco combustion products in there—which I can’t name, but none of which are good for you— but it’s a purer form of getting addicted.
On the FDA approving OxyContin for kids as young as 11 years old:
You should make it available for pain that you can’t find other things for, kids suffering from cancer, or burns, terrible injuries… but, it’s hugely addictive, highly abused, probably one of the biggest street drugs out there, so you really need to have a system to prescribe this stuff where you’re watching everything that’s taking place with kids.
On diet products being available to minors:
They shouldn’t be available because most of them don’t work. If you’re going to give a kid a little bit of speed, which is what some of these products are built around, you’re basically flirting with an addictive drug, easy abused, bad health consequences… we don’t have a good tool for weight loss in pill form, we just don’t.
On kids throwing out fruits and vegetables in their school lunches:
You need to restrict choices a little bit. This gets us back to our friend—the health commissioner in Texas who wanted to put back the fat fryer and let the kids choose? You put the French fries back, who’s going to choose Brussels sprouts? I wouldn’t, in a school lunch? Not a chance.
…or do kids just not like being told what to do?
I don’t know, but I’d bet money on that one. You tell me, you gotta eat an apple a day, I’m going to find some way, at age 14, to make sure that never happens.
To hear more, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.
