I’m writing to call out Scottsdale Unified School District board members Jann-Michael Greenburg and Barbara Perleberg for their opposition to the anti-vaping resolution as reported by Delarita Ford, “Anti-vaping resolution goes up in smoke” in the January 2021 issue of the Scottsdale Independent.

Greenburg and Perleberg’s opposition to this critically important health resolution is a textbook case of dereliction of duty.

Greenburg and Perleberg’s perversion of this critically important health resolution as a political issue defies explanation and has no basis in fact or science.

I feel so strongly about this issue because I spent my childhood into adulthood watching relatives battle and then die of emphysema because they were either a heavy cigarette smoker or because they breathed in the toxic second-hand smoke fumes of their heavy smoking spouse.

Vaping is another form of cigarette smoking and it must be treated as such. Nicotine is more addictive than heroine. This is a health issue pure and simple.

Now is the time to act to curb this dangerous addiction that will severely affect the future health of the children of Scottsdale and the health of those around them.

People who don’t vape should never be forced to inhale the second-hand smoke toxic fumes of any form of cigarette smoking. Children who don’t vape must have the same right to not have to inhale the second-hand smoke toxic fumes caused by other kids who are vaping.

It’s abundantly clear that Greenburg and Perleberg don’t care about the right of those who don’t vape to be able to breathe clean air. It’s also important to consider the long-term consequences of poor health in adulthood for people who start vaping as kids and for the strain it puts on our healthcare system.

One needs only to look at the many thousands of deaths every year from heart disease, cancer, and COPD that any form of cigarette smoking and breathing of toxic second-hand smoke from cigarette smoke plays a clear role in causing.

More people die of diseases caused by breathing second-hand cigarette smoke than are killed yearly in car accidents.

Greenburg and Perelberg’s failure to act now to curb vaping in kids will surely increase these already high numbers of preventable deaths.

Editor’s Note: Nancy Kuhn is a resident of Scottsdale.