More people are throwing out their vapes, and a new study says it’s a significant safety and environmental threat.
A report by CALPIRG Education Fund found that people are throwing out vapes at a rate of 5.7 per second.
“That's about 500,000 vapes each year, and if you were to line them all up in a row, that would stretch the length of the US three times,” Fiona Hines with CALPIRG said at a press conference at Santa Monica Beach on Tuesday.
Hine added that the vapes can wind up in a myriad of places, including the sewer systems and the beach, and that the devices are a health and safety risk if not disposed of properly.
“They have an embedded lithium-ion battery, which creates a fire risk,” she said. “They also encase in a plastic shell which will never fully biodegrade, and they contain e-liquids, which are often acute toxins. “
Heal the Bay's Emily Parker said the vapes can also be dangerous the marine life.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
“Studies on vaping liquids have actually found that they can cause decreased hatching success in fish embryos, and they can even cause impairments in bone and cartilage development in these animals, and they can cause DNA damage,” she said.
While CALPRIG found a 52% decrease in disposable vape sales thanks to the state’s 2022 ban, Parker added that Heal the Bay started gathering data on disposable vapes in 2022 because it wasn’t an issue before.
“Since 2022, our volunteers have actually collected over 2200 disposable vapes at 350 different cleanups across Los Angeles County, and that's just here in Los Angeles,” she said.
The California legislature is currently considering a bill that would ban the sale of disposable vapes across the state.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
