ODH director: Children 5 and younger make up more than 70% of e-cigarette-related injuries
Oct. 19—The Ohio Department of Health Director issued a warning about the rise in e-cigarette-related injuries, especially among children 5 and younger.
"I want to raise the alarm that the liquids in e-cigarettes or vaping devices are proving to be an increasing risk to our young children," Vanderhoff said Thursday during a virtual press conference. "Young children can be poisoned by swallowing the liquid, taking a puff — if they have seen someone else use it — or even from absorbing it through their skin or eyes."
Since 2015, the number of vape liquid exposures reported to Ohio poison centers has nearly tripled, from 130 in 2015 to 360 in 2022.
Data collected so far in 2023 signals another likely increase, with 328 exposures reported through September, Vanderhoff said.
Of the 1,762 exposures reported since 2015, more than 70% involved children 5 and younger.
The liquid, which can contain nicotine, THC, CBD, flavors or a combination, is rapidly absorbed when swallowed or spilled on the skin and can quickly result in symptoms, Vanderhoff said.
Symptoms of a small exposure are nausea and vomiting. Large exposures can affect the heart rate, blood pressure and can cause seizures. Young children will need to be evaluated in a health care facility or need emergency medical care for these exposures, he said.
"I want people who have vaping supplies in their home to become more aware of the risks these devices can pose to children," Vanderhoff said.
If an exposure does occur, people can call the Poison Control Hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 800-222-1222 to speak to poison specialists.
Communities across the U.S. also are confronting a new vaping problem with the growing popularity of disposable e-cigarettes: how to safely get rid of millions of small battery-powered devices that are considered hazardous waste. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled, the Associated Press reported.
The Food and Drug Administration in early 2020 banned nearly all flavors from reusable e-cigarettes, such as the cartridge-based Juul product. But the policy did not apply to disposables. This opened the door to thousands of new varieties of fruit and candy-flavored vapes, almost all manufactured in China, the AP reported.
U.S. teens and adults are buying roughly 12 million disposable vapes each month.
"We are in a really weird regulatory place where there is no legal place to put these and yet we know, every year, tens of millions of disposables are thrown in the trash," Yogi Hale Hendlin, a health and environmental researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, told the AP.
The devices are a fire risk, a potential environmental contaminant and the amount of lithium, valued for its use in electric vehicles and cellphones, is impractical to remove and too small to warrant salvage.
"I kind of miss the days when we had Juuls and I could take each battery out and recycle them very easily," said Shelly Fuller of Veolia, an international waste management firm that has incinerated more than 1.6 million pounds of vaping waste in recent years at its Gum Springs, Arkansas, facility. "No one has time to dismantle a thousand Esco Bars."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
