New Jersey school installing vape detectors in bathrooms, report says

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CDC says vaping-related illnesses surge to 530 cases

The FDA says it's launching a parallel federal probe; insight from Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, family and emergency medicine physician.

A New Jersey high school will reportedly turn to vape detectors in a bid to crackdown on teen e-cigarette use beginning in mid-October. The small fire alarms will reportedly be placed in Glen Rock High School following a survey in which 30 percent of students said they did not feel safe in the bathrooms due to vaping, according to TAPInto.net.

VAPING ILLNESSES REACH 530 CASES, CAUSE REMAINS UNKNOWN, CDC SAYS 

The school superintendent reportedly told the news outlet that his district is not immune to the vaping trends currently plaguing the country.

On Thursday, health officials announced an eighth death linked to vaping-related illness and said the victim was a Missouri man in his 40s. Nationwide, over 500 illnesses linked to vaping have been reported, but no one product or ingredient has been identified as the culprit.

Two-thirds of the illnesses have occurred in patients ages 18-34, with the majority being male. The spike to 530 cases marks a sharp increase from last week, when officials had tallied 380 illnesses. Patients have reported shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, diarrhea and vomiting. Several have been placed in medically-induced comas only to emerge and share their stories as cautionary tales to others.

FDA LAUNCHES CRIMINAL PROBE OF VAPING-RELATED ILLNESSES, CONGRESS TO HOLD HEARING

“You have no idea of how precious [lungs] are until they aren’t yours anymore and a machine is telling them to breathe for you,” Sherie Canada, a mother of three from Abilene, Texas, wrote on Facebook. “I had so much shame, guilt, and anxiety. I lost my independence [which] I had taken for granted. I couldn’t go to sleep for days after they removed the tubes because I feared waking back up and going through it all over again.”

Earlier this month the FDA urged consumers to stay away from THC products as they often contain Vitamin E acetate, which health officials in New York were eyeing as a potential cause of illnesses in some of its residents. The man in Missouri had told his family he started vaping in May for chronic pain, but it was not immediately determined if he had been vaping THC.

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Brett Charleston, Glen Rock’s superintendent, said the first installation of fire alarms will be a pilot program, and the administration will reassess whether to purchase more.