Last month, the Food and Drug Administration started to impose import restrictions on the dangerous, illegal flavored disposable vapes in kid-friendly flavors like bubblegum and cotton candy that China continues to produce and sell in the United States. That’s encouraging because Nevada has a major vaping problem on its hands.
More than 20 percent of the state’s teens say they vape, which the Southern Nevada Health District is now calling a state epidemic. 6000 Puffs
The vaping outbreak has really taken authorities in Nevada by surprise. A tobacco expert at the University of Nevada, Reno admitted that vaping wasn’t on her radar a decade ago. She highlighted how important it is to stop these teens before they start and can become addicted to vaping.
Everyone knows these flavored disposable vaping products are dangerous. But those smuggled in from Communist China are especially dangerous because they may contain life-threatening chemicals, including fentanyl.
“One of the things we have noticed recently is we have gotten a fair number of calls to our poison center for young people, adolescents, who have been experimenting with vaping fentanyl,” Dr. Christopher Hoyte, director of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center in Denver, Colorado, told a TV station.
It isn’t clear whether those youth knew they were using fentanyl or thought they were simply vaping disposable e-cigarettes. But the doctor has a message for all youth: “Don’t just go buy anything off the street because you have no idea what you’re actually buying and that can be unbelievably dangerous.”
The federal government reported that more than 700 million disposable vapes came to the U.S. from China last year, while countless others came across the southern border from Mexico.
Sadly, our children are paying the price.
A Las Vegas television station interviewed 18-year-old Robert Burlile, who says he uses vape pens his friends buy illegally. He suddenly started having seizures and losing feeling in his legs. He suspects the vape pens are the cause.
China regulates the flavored disposable vapes sold in its domestic market, but it does not try to keep an eye on those sent out of the country, even though most vapes are made in one particular location inside the country. Why should it? Chinese leaders don’t care about our kids. But while President Xi Jinping doesn’t care if they inhale fentanyl, we should.
And that’s the beauty of the FDA’s new import alert, which will allow U.S. authorities to detain the illegal products produced by the many flavored disposable vape companies that prey on our children. This list includes the infamous Elf Bar, a company whose products have been found on U.S. store shelves with illegal levels of nicotine and on TikTok deliberately marketed to our children.
“We will continue to use the full scope of tools in our regulatory toolbox to make sure that those who make, distribute or sell illegal e-cigarette products are held accountable,” Dr. Brian King, who runs the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. “Firms receiving a warning letter have 15 days to respond to FDA outlining how they will address the violation. If a firm doesn’t adequately address the violation, we have a bevy of enforcement actions at our disposal that potentially await them.”
Kudos to the FDA for holding these illegal manufacturers’ feet to the fire. Now it just needs to follow through and finish the job.
Nevada’s parents, teachers, public safety officers and health officials are all watching and rooting for it.
Vape Juice James Smack is a former Republican National Committeeman for Nevada.