Science Take-Out Kits for Improving Environmental Health Literacy on Vaping

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ABSTRACT E-cigarettes are currently the most commonly used tobacco product among youth, and they are typically marketed to youth by promoting flavors. Commonly cited reasons for e-cigarette use (“vaping”) among both youth and young adults are flavoring/taste and low perceived harm compared to other tobacco products. Because of the rapidly evolving e-cigarette technology, there are many uncertainties and unknowns about the environmental health effects of vaping. Vaping may pose significant health risks due to long-term exposure to e-cigarette aerosols containing chemicals, flavorings, ultrafine particles, and heavy metals. The purpose of this project is to develop, pilot test, and evaluate the use of Science Take-Out kits that focus on topics related to the environmental health effects of vaping. The kits will be designed to enable school-based and community-based educators to use hands-on activities to improve participants' environmental health literacy on the potential long-term health effects of vaping. This project is a partnership between:  Science Take-Out, a small business that creates and manufactures preassembled “lab in a bag” science kits containing all materials needed for users to engage in hands-on science activities.  The Community Engagement Core of University of Rochester's Environmental Health Sciences Center, which has created numerous education and outreach initiatives. During this Phase I STTR project we will: 1. Develop two Science Take-Out kits on the environmental health effects of vaping 2. Conduct focus groups for school-based and community-based educators to evaluate kit prototypes 3. Pilot test the kits in school-based and community-based settings This project is significant because it will develop hands-on activities and resources that educators can use to address the environmental health risks of e-cigarette use. These new kits will combine the ease-of-use features of Science Take-Out kits with activities and scenarios that engage learners in understanding the potential long-term environmental health effects of vaping. The hands-on Science Take-Out vaping education kits will be designed to be useful in a wide variety of school-based and community-based education settings. This project is innovative because the Science Take-Out vaping education kits will employ a unique combination of characteristics that increase the likelihood of adoption by educators: (1) The kits will use hands- on, scenario-based activities that increase people's awareness of environmental health risks related to e- cigarettes use, and: (2) The “lab in a bag” kits will make hand-on science activities easy, economical and convenient for educators to use in a wide variety of school-based and community-based settings.