Daily Archives: May 28, 2023

A guilt-stricken teen was forced to confess shed been vaping after a vape shed thrown away set the house ablaze and left the family homeless.

Mom Heidi Johnson was downstairs with her four-year-old son and a friend when the smoke alarms began to go off at around 7.15 pm last month [April 15th].

The carer went upstairs to check them and was horrified to be faced with flames and plumes of thick black smoke coming from her 16-year-old daughters room.

Racing downstairs and ushering her loved ones from the house, the mother-of-three called the fire brigade who arrived at 7.30 pm.

Its believed the lithium in the battery of a dead cherry cola-flavored vape, which had been binned as it had run out, sparked the devastating blaze.

Her teenage daughter, who had nipped to a shop with a friend, was horrified when she returned home to discover the house had been ruined and shamefacedly admitted the vape was hers.

Heidi is sharing her ordeal to warn about the dangers of vaping and encourage the installation of more bins for proper vape disposal

Shocking pictures show the property and all their possessions covered in soot forcing the children to live with family members while the 37-year-old lives out of her car with her four-year-old dog Bubbles.

Now Heidi is sharing her ordeal to warn others about the dangers of vaping and encourage more places to install bins where they can be properly disposed.

Heidi, from Batley, West Yorkshire, said: I was just in the living room and my little boy and my friend were in the kitchen when the fire alarms started going off.

Now and again the alarms go off and theres no problems.

I checked the kitchen one and it wasnt flashing red, neither was the living room one.

I thought it was probably just a dickie [alarm].

When I got to the top of the stairs, it was just black. I couldnt see anything.

There was a bit of a light coming out of my daughters bedroom. I pushed the door back and it was all up in flames.

It was the week after my daughters 16th birthday, so all her birthday things were gone, shes got nothing

I never expected it. When I saw it I screamed.

My friend and my son were at the bottom of the stairs. I told them to go, I said get out, get out! and pushed them next door.

It went so quickly, it was so scary seeing the flames.

It was the week after my daughters 16th birthday, so all her birthday things were gone, shes got nothing. Wed just decorated her bedroom and bought her a new telly.

Shes devastated, absolutely heartbroken. Its just a shock. I dont think Ive even accepted what has gone on.

The fire brigade turned up and at first they thought it was a gas leak.

It turned out it was my daughters vape, but it had been there for ages. She said it was dead.

It was just in the bin in her room. She said it had been in there all day.

The thing is, my daughter wasnt even allowed vapes in the house.

Ive already banned vapes from my house, but I cant put it on her. Its just one of those things that has happened. I know shes taken it worse, because it was her vape. She blames herself for it.

Weve been left completely homeless, its really affecting my kids

The fire brigade said it was the lithium in the battery that had leaked out of the vape and caused the fire.

Heidis rented house is now ruined beyond repair, as not only was the upstairs destroyed by the smoke and fire, but the downstairs suffered water damage too.

Her children are staying with family members, while she sleeps in her car with her dog every night until they can find alternative accommodation.

The single mom says she feels heartbroken and that she has been left with nothing due to a vape.

Heidi said: I cant even go in the house, even if I wanted to get something out, its so dangerous.

Its sickening, Im 37 years old and Ive got nothing apart from my car, its horrible.

The thing is my daughter wasnt even allowed vapes but its just one of those things that happened.

Theres no proper disposal bins for them, theyre just getting thrown left, right, and centre

Its all gone, it burnt everything. The kids have no toys or everyday things.

Weve been left completely homeless, its really affecting my kids. I just want to be normal and back with my kids.

Its reality. Im just plodding along and trying to do what I can do for my children, but it just isnt working.

Everything just seems to be getting worse. Its hard, Im trying to deal with one thing and then another happens.

Grateful no one was hurt, Heidi hopes that in sharing her story she can highlight the potential dangers of vapes and the importance of properly disposing of them.

Heidi said: Ill survive. Im here and alive. Just dont vape. At the end of the day, it isnt worth it.

When youre in my situation and youre living in the car with your dog separated from your kids. Its all because of a vape.

They dont even have any warnings or proper disposal places for them.

Something so dangerous and theres no proper disposal bins for them, theyre just getting thrown left, right, and centre.

You dont think its going to happen because its dead and its useless but its taken my whole house out.

Im so scared of them now, I never want to see one again.

My daughters trying to keep going but shes suffering, all my kids are and Im not even able to be around them at times like this. Its just crazy.

It could happen any time, anywhere and theres nowhere to get rid of them. There hopefully will be soon.

I just dont want this to happen to anyone else. You dont think it can happen, I never even knew it could happen.

You can donate to Heidis fundraiser here.

The post Teenage girls vape started fire that burned down her family home appeared first on Talker.

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A teenage girl's vape started fire that burned down her family's home - The Georgia Sun

Published 11:15 am Saturday, May 27, 2023

You cant stop what you dont know, is Jermaine Galloways motto and tagline.

Galloway, a towering 6-foot-9 former collegiate basketball player, worked in Idaho law enforcement for 18 years and currently resides in Texas. He has extensive experience in alcohol and drug compliance and enforcement, and currently devotes most of his time educating professionals and communities throughout the U.S. on prevention of drug and alcohol abuse.

At the Atrium Stanly Family Health Education Center, Tall Cop, as Galloway is known to many, spoke Monday evening to participants in the Stanly County Schools Community Health Fair about national and local trends that often lure young people into substance abuse.

Its important to take note of this information now, he said, noting that most studies in this field are two to three years behind current trends when released.

Jermaine Galloway

In a fast-moving slide presentation, Galloway illustrated and explained numerous ways that distributors of some seemingly-innocuous products are able to legally sell items that often contain cannabis and cannabis derivatives, synthetic hallucinogens, alcohol and caffeine.

Whats worse is these items are marketed toward children and teens, he said.

Vaping, according to Galloway, is a common gateway through which youngsters often begin a process that leads them to progressively stronger substances.

If you want to get a kid to use a drug, put it in a vape, he said, noting that the wide variety of vape flavors is an attraction to many young people.

In some areas, children as young as second and third grade have been found to be vaping, Galloway noted, adding that most vaping brands contain nicotine, and that vape pens containing cannabis often utilize propane and butane, which the user breathes in along with the flavored substances.

To parents, Galloway delivered a stern advisory.

Please dont let the words Well, at least theyre just vaping come out of your mouth, he said, adding that an addiction to vaping is often more difficult to break than one to harder drugs.

While vaping is a common first step toward substance abuse, numerous other items containing dangerous substances are easy to find.

Magic Mushrooms and Diamond Shrooms are examples of substances that look like snacks, but contain hallucinogens in small, but potentially dangerous amounts, he said, showing a slide of the packages, whose bright colors and design would easily capture a youngsters attention.

As an example, Galloway displayed a redacted e-mail that he had received from a school resource officer at a Kentucky middle school, noting that a number of students there had been fainting over a short period of time. Upon investigating, it was determined that many students in the school had been using such substances.

Fainting and seizures, along with panic attacks and anxiety, can result from use of these items, he said.

Alcohol abuse remains a major problem among youth, yet marketers often target that demographic in their sales efforts.

According to Galloway, items such as hard seltzers or sparkling seltzer beers are often marketed to young people as low-carb, low-calorie alternatives to beer and other alcoholic beverages.

But, look at the alcohol content of these drinks, he said, noting that hard seltzers often are about 5 to 6% alcohol, and seltzer beers up to 7%.

A beer is usually around 4%, Galloway said.

While mixtures of cannabis and alcohol are illegal, Galloway noted that some manufacturers are able to circumvent these regulations by mixing alcohol with cannabis substitutes.

Its equivalent to weed, but its not weed, he said.

Galloway is critical of states that have legalized such substances, and says that in his experience, legalizing them only exacerbates the problem.

When you legalize it, you make it more available, he said. So, if its more available, kids will find a way to get their hands on it and use it more.

On a positive note, Galloway noted that most national department store, convenience store and grocery store chains refrain from selling such items.

Theyve got a reputation to uphold, he said, so most of them dont stock these items.

The businesses that parents should beware of are establishments such as smoke shops or others with no affiliation, said Galloway.

In closing, Tall Cop again appealed to parents to be aware of what their children are consuming.

Every drug has some kind of side effect, he said. And no drug is ever completely safe.

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'Tall Cop' says 'gateway' drugs can be found on store shelves - The ... - Stanly News & Press

According to Material Focus, two vapes are disposed of in the UK every second. The number of people vaping worldwide is predicted to have reached a record high having risen from seven million in 2011 to 55 million in 2021.

While the Government is actively using vapes even giving out vaping kits as part of their target to make the UK smoke-free by 2030, vapes are proving to be even more damaging to the environment, due to fires from embedded lithium batteries as well as the leaching of corrosive electrolytes and heavy metals. Indeed, research published by Material Focus in December 2022 identified that over 700 fires in UK waste trucks and on waste sites were caused by batteries that hadnt been disposed of correctly.

There are currently calls for bans on single-use vapes and for vapes to be made into a separate waste category, with their own solution within the WEEE Regulations.

Arguably the main problem with vapes is that there is no established system for their collection and disposal. Millions of single-use disposable vapes containing valuable resources like lithium end up in landfills across the world. Its estimated that approximately 1,200 electric vehicle batteries could be made from the lithium lost in discarded vapes and e-cigarettes in one year.

Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, told a joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigate Journalism, Sky News and the Daily Telegraph in July last year that vapes that go to landfill are responsible for dumping plastics, poisons, nicotine salts, heavy metals, lead, mercury, and flammable lithium-ion batteries into the environment.

He continued: The challenge is that people dont really think about what a vape is made of, but what it does for them.

Other impacts include littering, the aerosol transmission or leaking of toxic substances from e-liquids, the leaching of heavy metals and the leaking of corrosive electrolytes from batteries.

Due to the public and environmental health risks, local authorities and governments around the world are considering legislation options for controlling the sale and disposal of vapes.

Glasgow Councils Environment and Liveable Neighbourhoods Committee called for the Scottish government to introduce legislation to ban the sale of single-use vapes earlier this year. Australia also announced a ban on the sale of all non-prescription vapes earlier this year.

In the UK, a Disposable Electronic Cigarettes (Prohibition of Sale) cross party bill was put forward by Conservative MP Caroline Johnson in February, but is not scheduled for a second hearing until 24 November. The UK parliament website says, however, that the House is currently not expected to sit on this day and the bill is therefore not expected to be taken.

In this years budget, UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt also rejected proposals to tax disposable vapes to discourage underage vaping; the Government is instead considering a ban on candy-flavored vaping liquids alongside a clampdown on marketing that could appeal to the young, with a consultation into youth vaping launched in April this year.

The Governments reticence to introduce legislation around vaping has been put down to the opportunity that vapes present in moving the population away from traditional cigarettes. Mark Oates, director of the campaign group We Vape, told eCigIntelligence that while he didnt think the industry was doing enough to address environmental issues, it would be a great shame if [the government] removed this opportunity to take people away from cigarettes.

The solution, commentators suggest, is to focus on recycling schemes and the introduction of policy around recycling and waste collection. In the case of no blanket ban, stakeholders are calling for extended producer responsibility (EPR) for vape and e-cigarette producers, with some producers having already proactively created or signed up for recycling schemes.

There are examples of several recycling and collection schemes for vapes currently set up around the world. Private waste disposal companies GAIACA and TerraCycle offer services which dismantle, clean, and convert vaping devices into raw materials for use in new products in both New Zealand and Canada. In the US the vape industry has launched recycling schemes such as DotMod, Shanlaan, Dovpo and Vinn.

In the UK, vaping company FEELM has launched a UK-wide recycling scheme in partnership with Royal Mail and waste management firm Waste Experts. From the end of this month, Customers in London, Birmingham and Manchester will be able to return their used single-use vapes to a participating retailer or through the post. The waste items will then be recycled while the remaining e-liquid will be safely disposed of. To incentivise uptake, for every ten devices deposited FEELM will provide customers with a free vape.

Vape retailer Totally Wicked has also signed up for a national vape collection service launched by Veolia last month and VPZ stores have announced its own recycling partnership with WasteCare.

While recycling schemes are a step in the right direction, a huge hurdle still to overcome is customer messaging. Many people lack an understanding of the effect of vapes on the environment.

Despite being better for human health than traditional cigarettes, iIn the absence of proper management and legislation, single-use vapes and e-cigarettes are more hazardous than single-use plastics because of the chemicals they contain, yet many vape users are unaware of the dangers.

As Material Focus Scott Butler made clear, vapes and e-cigarettes tend to be looked at in terms of public health. The industry has, however, been slow to launch campaigns which look to expand consumer awareness of the environmental issues associated with vapes and e-cigarettes.

Gateshead Council in Tyne and Wear has been ahead of the curve, launching a campaign to teach residents about the correct disposal of vapes and dangers posed by incorrectly disposal in household waste or recycling bins.

Councillor Linda Green, Chair of the South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership, told Circular Online in February: I really dislike the term disposable, as they are anything but.

All vapes contain a battery, and if you throw them in your bin and they are collected by our crews, these batteries can be damaged during processing and spark, setting fire to any combustible materials around them.

The question for the industry is whether a blanket ban can be avoided by sufficiently curtailing the environmental damage of vapes through consumer communications and proper recycling while still reaching the Governments target of a smoke-free UK.

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Vape wasteland: Looking beyond public health - Resource.co

Across the 2010s, largely thanks to the tobacco industry, vaping kind of got a bad rap. However, when it comes to cannabis, vaping has quickly become one of the industry go-tos for many folks' means of consuming THC. A lot of that is owed to the work of longtime brand Storz & Bickel and its suite of high-end, medical-grade vaporizers.

Designed to be smoother and generally better for your body than traditional smoking methods, the brand's vapes represent some of the top options in the weed industry and they're lauded by fans around the world. So what's the catch? Well, they're pretty expensive, for one. And that's enough to scare off plenty of people.

However, I got my hands on one of the brand's most popular, top-end offerings, the Mighty+, to see if it actually lives up to the admittedly significant hype. Over the course of several weeks, I turned to this device as my daily vape with the hope of determining once and for all if the Mighty+ is worth its similarly mighty price.

After getting hands-on with the Storz & Bickel Mighty+ for a few weeks, I finally understand the online forum hype that surrounds this particular device. Setup was a breeze (thanks to clear, simple instructions sadly somewhat uncommon among other vapes), the device worked brilliantly right out of the box (it was even charged up), and the whole process from first turning it on to finally refilling it (and back again) was as easy as it was enjoyable. From a user experience perspective, the simplicity of this device might just be its primary strength, followed shortly by its consistency and precision. It also hits smoothly and deceptively hard.

The device is certainly large probably best for at-home use and not so much for taking on the go and it looks more like a piece of industrial sci-fi equipment or maybe even a walkie-talkie, but that also lends to its discretion and, frankly, I like that it isnt easy to misplace. I was also initially skeptical of the price given that the exterior is made from plastic, but after using it (and learning that its a special heat-resistant plastic around a ceramic-coated heating chamber that gives off virtually no heat, even at the highest settings), I think these materials were the right choice to keep the device at a manageable weight. All told the Mighty+ was a true joy to use, even among the other top-rated vapes Ive had the pleasure of trying.

Admittedly, I was a little intimidated by the thought of using the Mighty+ for the first time. I had seen the device in action, but never actually put my hands on one despite a longstanding desire to try it out. However, getting it all ready to go was a simple matter the first time (and every time after that), thanks to clear instructions included with the device. Furthermore, the steps are brief and pretty intuitive: open the chamber, fill it with flower, secure it and hit the power button; wait a few moments for it to heat up and youre ready to go. Of all the vapes Ive tried, save maybe for disposable pens (which are often as wasteful as they are unreliable), this might actually be the easiest one to use. And that curve sticks with every use from there on, never increasing in difficulty or tediousness.

The kit also came with a USB-C power cable for simple, straightforward charging, as well as replacement filters, o-rings and even a little brush to clean out the chamber when it's time to repack it. These are all minor additions that make a pretty big difference in the overall user experience. Furthermore, replacing any of the aforementioned things is also a simple matter, aided by further instructions included with the vape. Why more brands dont include clear, concise instruction sheets, I do not know but Storz & Bickel makes it clear why this is such a vital part of customer service (theres even a support page on the brands site in case you need further help or misplace your instructions).

Every step of using this vape, from first unpacking it to cleaning it out the 100th time, is a simple matter. And that makes a tremendous difference in the overall experience. I am not exaggerating when I say this might be the easiest vape to use, especially on the higher end of the pricing and quality spectrum.

Sean Tirman

While it definitely falls somewhat in line with the above section (specifically in regard to user-friendliness), it needs to be said that one of the bigger joys of using the Mighty+ is the consistency and precision of the heating element. With just a simple push of the power button, the device will warm to the same exact temperature as it did the time before and the time before that. You dont have to fiddle with it if you dont want to and youll never be unsure as to whether it is fully heated or not (the display shows the temperature youre heating to, as well as the current temperature and vibrates when they match, for good measure).

This is important not only for simplicitys sake but to ensure that youre getting the same pull of your cannabis every single time. In fact, the only real way youre going to mess that up is through user error like fiddling with the temperature or neglecting to swap out your old, burnt-up flower. As the Mighty is certified for medical use, this all makes sense and, honestly, I wish it was more common among other vapes.

The very first thing youre going to notice about the Mighty+ is how big it is. Were talking BIG roughly the size of a glasses case or a modern walkie-talkie and definitely larger than my iPhone (maybe more like 2-3 iPhones stacked together). Yes, it is still small enough to qualify as portable to most, but youre really going to need a bag of some kind like a backpack or sling bag if you want to take it with you anywhere. Truthfully, I just dont see this thing making it into my pockets at any point.

Sean Tirman

The good news is, at least for users like myself, that it doesnt have to be super portable to be worth it. Its industrial-meets-sci-fi appearance lends itself well to discretion, which is ideal for home use and, while larger than other vapes, its size makes it easy to move it from room to room on an as-needed basis and youre probably not going to lose track of it, as you might with pocketable pen vapes. Combine that with the tech and overall experience and it more than makes up for its lack of outside-the-home portability. Still, if you were looking for something to stash while you head out into the world, this one might not be the best option for you.

It needs to be said that the Mighty+ (the device I used for this review) is actually a newer, updated version of the original Mighty. While these devices are almost identical in appearance (size, shape, etc.), the Mighty+ benefits from some fairly significant quality-of-life improvements, including a quicker charge time (up to 80 percent in just 40 minutes, as opposed to 2-3 hours for the standard edition), USB-C charging (the standard uses DC), quicker heating (60 seconds, as opposed to 70-80) and a few other smaller details.

Having used the Mighty+, Id definitely recommend the upgrade, even considering the price difference ($399 compared to the standards $349). Its not that the standard version is bad by any measure, its just that these slight differences do really go a long way toward the overall experience. Go big or go home, as they say.

If you like the Storz & Bickel tech and style, but youre just not sold on the size of the Mighty+, weve got good news: the brand has a much smaller unit (roughly half the size) called the Crafty+, which was specifically designed to be more pocketable. It doesnt have the same battery life, but thats the trade-off for portability.

Id also be remiss in my duties if I didnt mention the Pax Plus, the brands newest offering (and our top overall vape pick), which is super easy to use and offers a better overall user experience than previous generations (like the Pax 3). Furthermore, if youre just not feeling the style of the Mighty+ and youre a fan of sharing, the DaVinci IQC makes for an excellent choice. Finally, if you're not into vaping at all, but you still want a means to smoke your weed from the comfort of your home, I'm a very big fan of the Honest Capsule Water Pipe, which just so happens to be our top bong pick.

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Storz & Bickel Mighty+ Review: Is This Top-Tier Vape Worth Price? - Gear Patrol

Vaping in Chatham-Kent among students is double the provincial average.

Chatham-Kent Public Health officials are concerned the smoking rates here are higher than the provincial average.

And its killing people.

Jeff Moco, youth engagement co-ordinator for CK Public Health, said the most recent statistics indicate the rate of tobacco smoking in the province for people aged 15-plus is nine per cent. Here in Chatham-Kent its at 13 per cent.

Moco, in his report to the board of health, said smoking is estimated to be responsible for the death of 220 Chatham-Kent residents a year. Of those deaths, 92 are cancer-related, 63 are respiratory, 62 are cardiovascular and two are diabetic-related.

For the first time that I can really remember, Ontario Public Health has put a number on the burden smoking has put on our society, he said.

Whats more, tobacco smoking, Moco said, is responsible for 766 hospitalizations a year, and 1,723 emergency department visits annually in Chatham-Kent.

These smoking-attributable outcomes make up 19.4 per cent of all deaths, 9.4 per cent of all hospitalizations, and 4.4 per cent of all emergency department visits in Chatham-Kent, he stated in his report to the board of health recently.

As for vaping, Moco said provincial figures from the Ontario Student Drug and Health Survey indicate that in 2021, 15 per cent of students had vaped in the past year.

Local figures, with the most recent available from 2019, are much higher.

Moco said statistics from the Lambton-Kent District School Board show that 32 per cent of high school aged students vaped at least once a month.

With that figure, and the fact the highest adult age group for smoking locally is the 20-44 category at 23.2 per cent, the primary targets for smoking cessation efforts are teens and young adults.

This is a burden we all experience. This is preventable. It is our mission to help make a difference in this area. This is unsustainable, he said. We need to really, really focus on prevention; preventing a new generation of addiction to nicotine.

Dan Drouillard, a public health nurse, said the support for people looking to quit smoking has historically been quite fragmented in C-K.

The only tools weve basically had are some online programs, mail-out models, and they are quite limited in their success and what they can provide.

Drouillard said CK Public Health has partnered with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to use CAMHs STOP program.

This allows anyone without a family doctor in Chatham-Kent to get 26 weeks of free nicotine replacement therapy, as well as individualized counselling, he said. Were working on bringing this not only to Chatham, but to some of the outlying communities.

Due to the addictive nature of nicotine, Public Health officials arent expecting a 100-per-cent success rate. Far from it.

We want people to quit smoking, but our goal is to increase quit attempts on people aged 20-45. That will have the most impact, Drouillard said. People sometimes need to have multiple attempts to be successful. So getting people to try to quit is the most successful means.

Moco said it is difficult to grasp why the municipality has smoking and vaping rates above the provincial average.

In the past, people made a link between lower educational achievement and socio-economic status having a relationship with tobacco use, he said, alluding to the fact smoking rates were higher among the less educated and lower income groups in society. Vaping is more of a cultural phenomenon.

Vaping does differ from tobacco use, and some turn to it to escape cigarette smoking. But Moco said its not as safe as users may think.

Its not water vapour. The latest research is about 800 puffs per month on regular nicotine device has people reporting about the same number of respiratory issues as people who smoke 15 cigarettes a day, he said. Right now, Im dealing with people who do 800 puffs a week.

Young people kind of underestimate the addictive properties of these devices.

However, the federal government has issued information that vaping is safer than smoking tobacco in some ways.

Vaping products produce only a small fraction of the 7,000-plus chemicals found in tobacco smoke, as well as lower levels of the potentially harmful ones. Unlike cigarettes, vaping products do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, among many other chemicals, the Government of Canada website stated.

Furthermore, nicotine by itself does not appear to be a carcinogen.

While there are risks associated with nicotine, such as addiction and/or physical dependence, nicotine itself is not known to cause cancer. In contrast, cigarette smoke contains many disease-causing chemicals, including many that cause cancer, as well as heart and lung diseases, the federal website stated.

It did acknowledge the addictive nature of nicotine, however.

Link:

C-K smoking, vaping above provincial average | The Chatham Voice - Chatham Voice