Opinion: Why U.S. needs to act against disposable vapor products

A few years ago, teachers and principals in the Upstate and throughout South Carolina were confronted with a new danger facing our students, as e-cigarettes began showing up in classrooms and school lockers.

While traditional cigarettes have fortunately continued to decline in popularity among young people, fruity-flavored "vapes" became the trendy new teenage accessory as they spread like wildfire through our state and the country. Fighting back against the dangerous new epidemic of nicotine vape addiction, our elected officials banned flavored e-cigarettes. However, a more dangerous product slipped through the cracks and is getting our kids hooked.

Disposable e-cigarettes from companies like Puff Bar and Elf Bar have snuck around the law by exploiting a loophole in FDA regulation. They’re sold in kid-friendly flavors at reasonable prices and can be found on store shelves in our community. According to the Centers for Disease Control, disposable e-cigarette use among teens has increased by more than 160% since 2020. In 2022, 55% of youth vapers reported using disposables, with Puff Bar owning almost 15% of the market as the top choice for teens. Some manufacturers have been caught loading their products up with illegal levels of nicotine to make them even more addictive.

When you look at the cartoon-character packaging and flavors like cherry pomegranate, kiwi passion guava, and peach ice, you can see right away that they are marketing to young people. They’re even marketing them in disguises to look like sippy cups or even school supplies.

You might be asking yourself: How can this happen if flavored vapes are illegal? Well to start, the FDA left the door open for disposables in its enforcement guidelines. That needs to change. But more problematic is the fact that many of these products are being smuggled into our country from overseas.

Illegal vapes have been found smuggled across our Southern border from Mexico and through American seaports. Shenzhen, China, has become known as "Vapor Valley" since it produces 90% of all the e-cigarettes in the world. The International Trade Commission estimates that more than 700 million disposable e-cigarettes were imported from China to the U.S. in 2022, up from 300,000 in 2017. That's an increase of more than 2,000% in five years. These products are often produced without any oversight or government standards; in many cases, they are smuggled into the country illegally, and they end up on store shelves or worse sold on street corners out of backpacks.

It's bad enough that our kids figure out a way to get their hands on legitimate adult products, but the danger of these disposable products from overseas can't be overstated. These products can be made with poisonous chemicals and substandard manufacturing processes with dyes and materials that can make our children sick or worse. Recent news reports concerned vapes laced with fentanyl.

As a charter school consultant and operator in South Carolina, I have committed my life to helping provide children with a safe space to learn so that they can grow up happy and healthy. Part of that responsibility and commitment is trying to protect children from threats like drugs and alcohol. Our lawmakers and government must do more to help educators like me in our efforts to provide a safe environment for them to grow. The FDA knows that disposable vapes are the face of the new teen vaping epidemic, but the agency has not done enough to get them off our shelves.

Some lawmakers have started to take action. Sen. Dick Durbin from Illinois recently wrote to the attorney general and the FDA expressing his concern that the Biden administration has not acted swiftly enough to stop this scourge. In February, Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormack announced she is introducing new legislation to prompt urgent FDA action. Ohio Congresswoman Shontel Brown has also raised her voice to close the enforcement loophole. I hope that our South Carolina elected leaders can raise their voices, too.

These days, it's harder than ever to keep children focused and on the right path. As educators, we devote our lives to this mission, but we are challenged at every turn by the perils of drugs and alcohol.

We need to take more aggressive action to take kid-friendly, disposable vapor products off our shelves and keep dangerous illegal products out of our community so the next generation of South Carolinians can grow up happy and healthy.

Traci Bryant-Riches is a charter school consultant who has opened and operated schools throughout South Carolina.