November 6, 2019

by drplasticpicker.com

To Vaping Companies,

My name is drplasticpicker and I am a real life board certified pediatrician who cares for 2000 children in Southern California. I also take regular walks along a half-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean that borders a college student area. I pick up plastic debris before it goes into the ocean. In my over 60 walks along the beach, I find vaping pens, devices and caps every day.

Approximately 5 years ago when vaping devices first came out, I organized a professional pediatric journal club. My colleages and I reviewed the then small numbers of articles that were available regarding the safety of vaping. Even back then, our group concluded that this was a dangerous force that would threaten our children and there were many toxic components in the solutions that could have deleterious health effects. Five years later especially with the advent of THC vaping solutions and vaping companies marketing flavors to the young, this is a national threat.

There is nothing good about VAPING. There is not one walk, that I have not found some kind of plastic vaping debris. I doubt that your company uses post-consumer recycled plastic or ethically sources the metals that go into these devices. Also these young people, children, teenagers and college students, are now having their health harmed due to your products.

It is the greatest irony that this morning beside a vaping device, I found this piece of clothing. My mother in law washed it and removed all the sand. It is in good condition and will be donated to the Goodwill. This young person is trying to “Live a Life Full of Love” and your industry is trying to hurt that young person for your own profit. Where is the owner of this shirt? They have mysteriously disappeared without their clothes yet the vaping pen cap was still there. I think perhaps they wandered away from their sweater because they might have been on THC via the vaping pen. Otherwise, who would leave a perfectly nice piece of clothing on the beach? Plus this shirt make have ended up in the ocean and in a whale’s stomach.

Very timely, this morning the American Academy of Pediatrics just released information for providers and parents regarding vaping. “JUULing: What Pediatricians and Families Need to Know” https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/AAP-JUUL-Factsheet.pdf And more AAP information of electronic cigarettes https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/Richmond-Center/Pages/Alternative-Tobacco-Products.aspx

Note: I sent a toned down version of this post as a web comment to the California Vaping Company through their website which is located in San Diego with my real name on 11/5/2019. Now at least when I advise my teenage patients, I can also tell them I contacted the company directly also. Perhaps one of them will listen to me more.

Addendum: Being an advocate for children and young adults is hard. I am by nature a non-confrontational person. But that being said, if one advocates for children than one puts themselves out there to be vulnerable. One must be truthful and honest. Here is the response from California Vaping Company, I did delete the individual’s name as I have no desire to isolate anyone and cause psychological harm. Yes I am entitled to my opinions and as are they. The vaping lavors, the colors, everything is geared toward glorifying youth and health. I also opposed tobacco companies and there is already legislation regarding tobacco. Okay, moving on to the next battle. I had to speak up not only at our professional journal club but in the larger community conversation regarding dangers of vaping. As one of the stalwarts of our deparment who founded the Adolescent Fellowship at a large outside institute and was on the Child Abuse committee for years said to me before he retired regarding the work of teachers and pediatricians, “Being a child advocate has never been easy.” That man was a saint and had hundreds of people at his retirement party and people still ask about him. The opus of his life’s work is commendable. I will be judged by the children I serve.

“We have never advertised to children and I challenge you to find or prove me wrong. I invite you to come to the lab so you can see for yourself that you have no clue what your talking about. Apparently your ok with cigarettes and the amounts of death from lung cancer. How about you call Philip morris and tell them this and then hire the best chemist to break down every aspect of our liquid like we did so you can see for yourself that nothingis harmful in our eliquid. The problem with people like you is you go spouting off stuff that you have no clue about and want to jump on the hype train and believe what the media wants you to believe like the rest of the sheep and phillip morris. We go above and beyond protocol for our juice and you will never find a fact to dispute that. Good day. Email phillip morris and the lung cancer society that’s the enemy not us.”

Thanks, Unspecified Vaping Company

Update: November 22, 2019. I just received noticed from the current AAP President Dr. Kyle Yasuda that our professional organization is taking a firm stand against flavored ecigarettes. This is the message he sent to all pediatricans! So take that vaping company! The pediatricians are out in force to protect the children!

“

A Message from the AAP President

Dear Dr. Nguyen:

Throughout my time as AAP President, the youth vaping epidemic has become a full-fledged public health crisis. Over five million middle and high school students are now using e-cigarettes. These products are highly addictive, and their appealing flavors are luring children in.

We have been taking strong steps along the way to urge immediate action to protect young people from the harms of e-cigarettes, and today, I shared our message in the New York Times: pediatricians must be involved in any discussion about e-cigarettes and children.

If we are to prevent more children from becoming addicted, we must clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes once and for all, without any exceptions. When President Trump shared his intent to remove all flavored e-cigarettes from the market in September, we commended the announcement and urged immediate action.

The moment we learned the Trump administration may be exempting vape shops and menthol e-cigarettes from its proposal, we spoke out. And when reporting this weekend suggested the President may be backing away from the plan altogether, we sounded the alarm with our partners and amplified that message, over and over again