FDA'S Approval of E-Cigarettes

By: Vanessa Ramirez, Jamiya Coleman, Shakeera Hayward, Taylor Reedy, and Abby Chosewood

FDA approved Vuse Vapes for sell.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing of three new tobacco products in October, and some Statesboro stores are expecting big sales. 

    The FDA approval makes this the first set of electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products ever to be authorized by the FDA through the Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) pathway, according to fda.gov.

    Through this approval, the R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company was granted marketing orders. They are a vape company that develops and markets products that provide adult tobacco consumers with satisfying options for a diverse range of experiences and occasions. 

    The RJR Vapor Company submitted data to the FDA that proved that the products were appropriate for the protection of public health, resulting in the approval of the products.

Customer looking at vapes inside of A Smokin Place.

    Ben Kornick, an employee at The Smoke Haven, agrees and believes sales for the Vuse will be through the roof.

    “I definitely think they will increase,” Kornick said. “The FDA approval kind of gives us some sort of official credibility.”

    However, Saa’e Favors, a college student, is unsure if anything will change with the new FDA approval.

    “I don't think it will make much of a difference,” Favors said. “So many people are already using them.”

    Favors believes the marketing of the e-cigarettes could actually promote students to use them more if advertised right. 

RJR Vapor Company was approved directly for its Vuse Solo closed ENDS device, along with tobacco-flavored e-liquid pods. Those include the Vuse Solo Power Unit, Vuse Replacement Cartridge Original 4.8% G1, and Vuse Replacement Cartridge Original 4.8% G2. Some of these products are already sold out at local smoke shops, with The Smoke Haven being one of them.

    “The Vuse is the most popular because it’s sleek, easy to use and it d

oesn't have a lot of flavor, which tends to make people sick,” Jordan Whitley, an employee at The Smoke Haven, said.

    Flavors played a huge part in approving certain vapes from the Vuse brand. The FDA denied 10 marketing orders for the approval of flavored vape products after they failed to demonstrate how the marketing of these products would be appropriate for the protection of public health. 

Advertisement for Vuse Vapes outside of The Smoke Haven.

    Data also suggest that most youth and young adults who use vapes use flavors such as fruit, candy or mint, and not tobacco flavors. This also played a role in the decision of the approval of regular tobacco flavored vapes instead of sweet flavored vapes because of the youth not wanting to use regular tobacco flavored products. 

    The denied flavored vapes are required not to be introduced or delivered for commerce. If any are already on shelves, the FDA is requiring them to be removed immediately.

Limited Birth Control Options In Bulloch County

Birth Control, Side effects, and Online Pill Distributor Discussion

   Limited Birth Control Options In Bulloch County 

By Chase Amoroso Jocelyn Frazier Kaz Thomas and Lauren Sabia

    People in Bulloch County needing the full range of birth control options may find they have less access than surrounding counties.

    When many people think about birth control they often think of medical procedures and hormones; however, birth control is ultimately the act of preventing pregnancy.

    Methods for prevention include medications like birth control pills, behaviors like education, procedures like IUD implants and devices.    

    The use of contraceptives has been proven to have significant health benefits through reductions in unwanted and high-risk pregnancies, maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, unsafe abortions, medical therapy and transmission of sexually transmitted infections. 

A pack of one month supply of birth control pills 
Photo courtesy of Lauren Sabia

    According to  Power To Decide, a campaign that advocates for federal policies, regulations and programs that support young people's ability to access comprehensive sexual health information and services, more than 600,000 women in Georgia live in contraceptive deserts, counties in which there is no reasonable access to the full range of contraceptive methods. 

    Of those 600,000 women, roughly 45,000 Georgian women live in counties without a health center that offers the full range of contraceptive methods.

    These access barriers put low-income individuals at risk of not being able to get the right birth control method for them. They might face additional transportation costs, child care costs, and unpaid time off work because of the long distances they need to travel to access care.

    “When I first moved to Georgia in 2016, I was coming for school. I was an independent         student, I was working as a server and I was on birth control, but sometimes it gave bad side effects, so I'd stop taking them,” Madison Haines, a Pooler resident, said. “I couldn’t afford to go to the doctors often, so I kept sometimes taking my pills.” 

    However, some people have an easier time accessing birth control.

    “I’ve been on birth control since maybe eighth or ninth grade for my acne,” Addie Montroy, a Georgia Southern student said. “It was always easy for me to get it. I would just go to my primary care doctor. And throughout the years I've had different kinds and experienced different side effects with each of them. I don’t think I ever paid for them, only the co-pay. My insurance covered everything else.” 

    The Affordable Care Act requires that contraception be 100% covered by insurers, but that doesn't always mean women are able to access the birth control their doctor prescribed for them.

    The ACA requires insurers to cover at least one form of the 18 existing birth control methods, but not all of them.

    The newest contraceptives on the market are often not covered by insurers, even when they are recommended by the patient's doctor.

    The law also doesn’t mention pre-assessment exams, prior authorization processes, step-up exams, and sometimes even the medical process necessary to implement the method, such as an IUD, may be covered but the insertion of the device is not.

    Currently, Planned Parenthood and Savannah Medical Clinic in Savannah Georgia are the only health centers near Bulloch County that offer a full range of contraceptive methods,             including abortion. 

Addie Montroy showing her information
 card for her IUD
Photo courtesy of Lauren Sabia

Birth Control Near You

Assorted Condoms, a type of male birth control
Photo courtesy of Chase Amoroso

Learn More About Birth Control

Food Deserts a High Concern for Georgia Residents

mgroulx7 · Multimedia

 Food Deserts a High Concern for Georgia Residents

By: Jordan Hauser and Eden Hodges

            According to the USDA, more than 2 million Georgians are living in a food desert and Bulloch county is one of the many struggling with this issue.

Food deserts have been a pressing issue in the state of Georgia for many years. Residents are struggling to travel to grocery stores to get fresh produce, meats and other healthy options.

            According to the USDA, a food desert is where a large number of residents live in an area where they do not have easy access to a grocery store or supermarket.

“My family would have to travel around 10 miles from our home to reach a grocery store, said Schulz. The closest store we had to us was the Dollar General that carried some items but mainly frozen foods that we had for dinner pretty often,” Daniel Schulz, a northern Statesboro resident said.

To put this in perspective, there are 35 food deserts in the Atlanta perimeter alone.

“Growing up my parents made it a goal to only make a trip to the store about 2-3 times a month,” said Schulz. This meant our more regular food runs were made to the Dollar General. If you’ve never been to one, they sell food items that have a longer shelf life such as frozen foods, canned goods, and other dry foods,” Schulz said.

When looking at a Statesboro map, you will find that most grocery stores are mainly located within the circle of highway 301. Outside of that region, the closest grocery store most people can get too is a Dollar General.

Any Statesboro residents who do not reside near the circle of Highway 301 and over three miles away from a grocery store are considered to be living in a food desert. This leaves thousands of residents without easy access to healthy options.

“In the food pyramid it is very important that everyone is getting in all of the food groups, fruits and vegetables, meats, and milk and cheese are all key to a healthy diet,” Taylor Johnson a intern nutritionist in Atlanta said. “Residents who are located in food deserts need to make it a priority to receive these nutrients in some way.”

According to the CDC, a healthy diet contains 40 percent bread and pasta, 35 percent fruits and vegetables, 20 percent protein, and 5 percent fats.

“It would be ideal for grocery stores to begin spreading their locations to more rural areas, but this is not realistic,” Johnson said.

 

For many residents in food deserts, the main issue is the travel time and transportation. Many residents have hard times when rain storms come through and flood the dirt roads and some of them lack a method of transportation altogether.

Even in city areas in Statesboro a grocery store can still be several miles away from residential districts, making it difficult for those without transportation to find healthy foods for themselves or their growing family.

            Over the summer, Councilwoman Paulette Chavers implemented a community garden off of South College St. so that families in the surrounding neighborhoods could tend to crops that would eventually make it to their dinner tables. 

            The community garden allows for residents to have easier access to healthy options and create a better diet for themselves. This is an alternative way for residents who do not have access to a grocery store to get their fruits and vegetables.

Georgia Southern Counseling Center Solutions

Written by Justin Helms, Liz Lavender, Alexa Ovington, and Devon Williams

Frances Lavender · Counseling Center Solutions

        Many college students nationwide are hindered by the struggles of mental health and the availability of resources to help them. The COVID-19 pandemic has played a large role in the increase in mental health struggles for students here at Georgia Southern too. 

According to The Washington Post, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 10 percent of adults surveyed in June 2020 had seriously considered suicide within the past month. This is more than double the survey two years prior. The loneliness and lack of human contact plays a big role in these issues. 

“I think that once I graduated high school and I was unable to have a normal freshman year experience, my emotions got the best of me,” Ansley Clark, a Georgia Southern University sophomore said. “I felt like I missed out on normal experiences like going to the dining hall or library to meet friends.” She elaborated that her new relationships dwindled quickly as a result of the long break from in-person classes. 

Ansley Clark, Georgia Southern University sophomore

 Clark decided to visit Statesboro Psychiatrists Associates for an evaluation on her mental health, because the campus counseling center was completely booked for two months. When she was able to get counseling from the university, she left frustrated with the result 

“I didn't feel as if I got the right diagnosis and they weren't super helpful,” Clark said. She felt like the counselling center could have assisted her more since they are used to working with other students. “He didn't ask me the questions I felt like I needed to be asked as a student, they were super basic and general questions,” Clark said. She added that “it became more expensive to get help because I had to go off campus for an evaluation.” 

Zoi Woods, a freshman exercise science major, expressed her concern for minority groups not having enough mental health support. 

Zoi Woods, Georgia Southern University freshman. 

 

“I actually think the way they handle mental health is really good,” Woods said. “Only thing I would say is for minority groups to have more support”. 

Despite the praise from Woods, complaints about the counseling centers' availability persist. “I think they have all the necessary resources available; we have a fantastic counseling center with the most amazing staff ready to help,” Alexis Szaro said, a Georgia Southern University graduate and current third grade teacher. 

“Students are just doing the bare minimum to pass,” Szaro said. She personally has noticed a change in students being able to remain attentive since the pandemic. “I can understand why though, this has been hard on all of us,” Szaro continued, “since I am aware of the mental health struggles amongst my students, I am decreasing the workload and working with students on a base to base situation.” 

“In theory, yes they are easily accessible, however the long waiting lines make it that much harder to receive help,” Szaro said. Szaro also expressed concern with the appointment based system that the counseling center currently offers students. 

The Counseling Center at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.

New client appointments at the counseling center are currently booked for the rest of the semester, which is typical for this time of the fall term. 

A brief 30 minute check in is always available to make sure students have support systems and are aware of other resources for when they are unable to schedule an appointment with the counseling center. 

The counseling center has also partnered with Christie Campus health to assist their overflow of students needing support and evaluations. If you are a full time student at Georgia Southern University, you may utilize their services until health services can assist you. 

Svrluga, Susan, and Nick Anderson. “College Students Struggle with Mental Health as Pandemic Drags On.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 Oct. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/14/college-suicide-mental-health-unc/. 

Ansley Clark: ansley8507@gmail.com 

Alexis Szaro: (678)977-1801

Zoi Woods: zw02282@georgiasouthern.edu