"We've had numerous situations where kids have passed out, kids have been unconscious."
School administrators, parents, and public health officials have sounded the alarm on what the Office of the Surgeon General has called an "epidemic" of teens' and pre-teens' use of dangerous, addictive vape products, according to ABC News.
"It's very much a part of today's culture with teens," said Jennifer Folkenroth of the American Lung Association.
Surveys have shown that vape use has become widespread among young people in the United States, with parents expressing increasing levels of concern.
According to a poll conducted by the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan, 56% of parents place vaping and smoking among their top health concerns when it comes to their children. The same poll, the results of which were released in August, found that 69% of parents believe that the physical health of teens and children has been getting worse, and 83% think their mental health has been declining.
These concerns are well-founded. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 19% of high school and middle school students in 2024 reported that they had used a tobacco product, totaling more than 5 million students.
Tobacco use among young people is particularly concerning because of the negative impacts it can have on their developing brains and bodies and because early use can lead to a lifetime of addiction.
Compared to cigarettes, vape use is easier to conceal, and vape products can contain many times the amount of nicotine found in cigarettes.
"A cigarette delivers about one to two milligrams of nicotine per cigarette," said Dr. Rachel Boykan, a pediatric hospitalist. "Some of these more recently popular [vape] devices ... they're larger devices that contain a solution of a high percent of nicotine, and they can deliver as many as 600 cigarettes, so 30 packs of cigarettes, in one device."
Another concern is what substances they contain. While many vape products include nicotine, which is dangerous enough in its own right, they also contain flavorings and other chemical additives that can be harmful to human health.
Further, many vape products have been laced with illicit drugs. In the United Kingdom, officials and parents have been struggling to control the spread of vape products that include synthetic cannabinoids known as "spice," which have been linked to hospitalizations and extreme withdrawal symptoms.
"We see that children are vaping, and they don't know what they're inhaling," Grant Rivera, a school superintendent in Georgia, told ABC News. "We've had numerous situations where kids have passed out, kids have been unconscious. ... So for us, it is a critical safety initiative that is as important as any active shooter or fire drill that we're going to do."
Vape products also pose risks beyond the direct effects on users. The lithium-ion batteries contained within improperly disposed of vapes can cause dangerous fires in waste management systems. Additionally, discarded vapes can leach toxic heavy metals and dangerous chemicals into soil and water supplies.
In response, school administrators have attempted to crack down on vape use. For example, many schools have installed vape detectors in bathrooms, alerting school officials when a student is using a vape product, per ABC News.
However, experts warn that punitive measures alone won't work, pushing for science-backed approaches rather than punishments as a means of helping young people address their addictions.
"Teens should not be punished for being addicted to a product that was aggressively marketed to them on social media, through celebrities and kid-friendly flavors," the American Lung Association's Folkenroth said.