As young people head back to school, conversations about vaping and nicotine are more important than ever.

In this episode of Let’s Talk Lungs podcast, host Bethany sits down with respirologist Dr. Erika Penz to take a closer look at youth vaping. They explore what we know about vaping and its impact on health, what parents and educators should know about the products young people may be using.

Whether you’re a parent, caregiver, educator or someone who supports young people, this episode offers trusted information to help you better understand youth vaping and support young people who may vape or use nicotine products.

About our episode guest:

Erika Penz is Associate Professor and Division Head of Respirology and Sleep Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. She is Physician Co-Lead for the COPD Provincial Clinical Network.

Dr Penz’s main research focus includes burden of disease studies, with a focus on lung health, including tobacco cessation, effects of vaping, and management of severe asthma and COPD. She is co-author of the 2023 CTS Position Statement on Climate Change and Choice of Inhalers for Patients with Respiratory Disease as well as the 2023 CTS Guideline on Pharmacotherapy in Patients with Stable COPD and 2025 CTS Guideline on Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency targeted testing and augmentation therapy.

She is Associate Editor for COPD at the CHEST Journal. She also serves as Past President for the Canadian Thoracic Society and is an Advisory Board member of the Institute for Cancer Research of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.