Wisconsin Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm tells “UpFront” the department strongly cautions against the use of any vaping products.
On Friday, DHS said it is now investigating 11 hospitalizations for lung damage that are linked to use of vaping products.
“Adolescents need to be really cautious about these products,” Palm said on the show, produced in conjunction with WisPolitics.com. “Obviously, this cluster is worrisome, but the health effects of vaping more broadly are much unknown.
“We do know that it changes brain development for a starter, but the long-term effects are still unclear, and so we caution very strongly against the use of vaping products,” she said.
Palm urged parents to talk to their children about the potential dangers of vaping.
In another segment, “UpFront,” reporter Matt Smith said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is renewing his push for a “red flag” law in Wisconsin.
Red flag laws allow law enforcement, and sometimes family members, to petition to temporarily have guns removed from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
Kaul said the issue is “relatively new to the broader public debate here in Wisconsin, and I think it’s an issue where it’s worth pursuing it, because I think we can save some lives.”
At least 15 states have red flag laws, and Kaul said the laws have been effective in reducing suicides in some places.
Nik Clark, president of the gun-rights group Wisconsin Carry, said the group is worried because “I think there are some Republicans who would support it.”
“This is just about a gun grab,” Clark said.
Also on the show, Marquette University President Dr. Mike Lovell and his wife Amy said they have seen tremendous growth in a program they started in Milwaukee to help people heal from trauma.
The Lovells started Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee, or SWIM, about a year and a half ago. Mike Lovell said about 30 people attended the first meeting. A conference they held last year at Fiserv Forum drew hundreds, he said.
“If we address the trauma that people in the city were experiencing, then we can actually maybe change the trajectory of their lives, and help them be more resilient and successful,” Mike Lovell said.
“We just really felt like this could be the underpinning to a lot of mental health and opioid abuse and suicide,” Amy Lovell said.
Mike Lovell said there is significant scientific research on trauma and its effects on human health.
“Your chances for heart disease, or diabetes, or some of these other illnesses go way up,” he said.
“The good thing is, what the science also shows, is that you can actually retrain, create new pathways in your brain. Your brain is much more plastic than they thought it was,. And so through exercises and relationships and caring for each other, you can actually reprogram pathways in your brain, so you can heal from traumatic experiences,” he said.
Another conference is coming up in October. SWIM will partner with the Social Development Commission for the Summit on Poverty and SWIM Conference to be held October 7-8, 2019, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee.
See more from the show:
http://www.wisn.com/upfront.
