The
Food and Drug Administration is reminding caregivers to
store tobacco vaping cartridges safely to prevent children from being poisoned
by the liquid inside, noting that e-cigarette exposures have increased sharply
over the last year.
اضافة اعلان
A newsletter published last week by the
FDA included data from a
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in June that found that there
was a 32 percent increase for March 2023 compared with April 2022 in exposures
to e-cigarettes or e-liquids reported to
U.S. poison centers, most in children
under age 5. National data also suggests exposures hit a high in 2022.
“We’re seeing more of these products in the household,” said
Anthony Jaworski, clinical program manager for the
Poison Control Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “And with more of these products in the
household, more children are getting access to them.”
The FDA has restricted flavored e-cigarettes, but loopholes in
the ban, along with an influx of illegal vapes, mean that
e-cigarettes and e-liquids with fruit and candy flavors are continuing to end up in American
homes where they can get into the hands of young children curious about what
Jaworski called their “enticing” smell and packaging.
Exposure to just a few drops of liquid nicotine may be harmful
to young children if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through their skin.
“Each milliliter of
vaping liquid can contain the amount of
nicotine that is equivalent to about one or two or even sometimes five
cigarettes,” Jaworski said.
What parents should look out forThough reports of increasing exposures are cause for alarm, a
majority of cases in children tend to be “mild,” Jaworski said. In the recent
CDC report, 8% of cases were treated at a health care facility and less than 1
percent resulted in hospital admission.
Still, even “minor” symptoms may be distressing to children and
their parents, and tend to include reactions like vomiting, paleness of the
skin and sweating, Jaworski said.
“They usually start about 15 to 20 minutes after the initial
exposure occurs,” he said. “They could last anywhere from one to two hours.”
The FDA has also warned that more
serious effects can occur,
including seizure, coma, respiratory arrest and even death, and recent news
stories have included harrowing accounts from doctors who have treated young
patients with “violent reactions” to
nicotine poisoning. Parents should take
very seriously symptoms that last for more than an hour or two, Jaworski said,
as well as any signs of confusion or excessive tiredness, which may indicate
that nicotine has penetrated the brain.
If you believe that a child might have suffered any kind of
accidental exposure, call Poison Control to speak with someone right away,
Jaworski said.
He urged caregivers to store the number in their phones.
How to avoid accidental exposuresIdeally, parents and caregivers would not keep vapes in the
home, experts said, but if they do, they can still mitigate the risks. Avoid
flavored products that look or smell appealing to kids, Jaworski said, and try
not to use or refill e-cigarettes in front of them.
“We really harp on safe storage,” said Natalie Rine, director of
the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “There are
different things out there: lockboxes, locked cabinets — things kids can’t
easily get into.”
E-liquid containers are required to have child-resistant
packaging, and the FDA reminds parents to lock product caps by turning the cap
until they cannot twist it anymore. But Rine said her experience in poison
control had taught her that there was no such thing as a truly childproof
container.
“Kids can be Houdinis sometimes,” she said, emphasizing the
importance of keeping unsafe products locked away and out of sight.
The FDA report noted that nicotine cartridges could also harm
pets who were exposed to the liquid.
If you spill any
e-cigarette or vaping liquid, clean it up with
soap and water, the report said. And parents should instruct kids that they
should never touch a cartridge, which is for grown-ups only.
Though adolescents and teens are not as likely to accidentally
drink liquid nicotine, they face harms from e-cigarettes as well. National
survey data revealed that 14 percent of
high school students reported using
e-cigarettes in 2022, and 1 in 4 who were e-cigarette users said they vaped
every day.
Parents should look for vaping paraphernalia among their
children’s belongings and share their concerns about the risks e-cigarettes
pose, particularly to the parts of adolescents’ brains responsible for impulse
control, learning and mood.
“There is this misconception that since it doesn’t have that
stinky odor, it is obviously going to be safer,” Rine said. “Any amount of
nicotine is going to be addictive, and addiction happens quickly.”
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