NKyTribune
Northern Kentucky's Newspaper
By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News
“The Northern Kentucky Health Department is disposing of vapes confiscated from students at local schools as part of an effort to not only be environmentally friendly but also to educate kids about the potential harmful effects that come from vaping,” Sam Knef reports for Spectrum News.
Starting in August, the health department established vape disposal boxes in 17 of 18 Kenton County schools, and the first round of collection yielded 61 vapes confiscated from students, Knef reports.
“These were just vapes we were collecting from August from these schools. We found vapes in high schools. We also found them even in elementary schools,” Casey Baker, substance use prevention health educator for NKY Health, told Knef. At least half of them were THC vapes.
Knef reports that “the partnership has been an effort to help the district comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a federal law that requires the proper disposal of p-listed hazardous waste when over 2.2 pounds have been collected. Vaping devices confiscated from students fit that description.”
Baker told Knef that the vape disposal program isn’t just about helping the environment, but also about making sure schools are providing educational programming. Further, she said that one of the greatest concerns is that many of the health effects of vaping are still unknown and that even though there has been a decrease in the number of youth using tobacco products, “There is still an epidemic occurring.”
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