An e-cigarette may be an electronic device, but for a former smoker, it definitely isn’t “just another gadget.” If you’re a former smoker who has made the switch to vaping with a vape juice kit from a company like E-Cigarette Empire, your vaping device is your constant companion. It’s with you at all times, just like your cigarettes and lighter once were. A vaping device and bottle of e-liquid aren’t like a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, though. In many ways, they’re almost more dangerous. A child can’t light up a cigarette without everyone in the vicinity knowing – but a sneaky puff on an e-cigarette? That’s a bit harder to catch.
For a responsible parent, e-cigarette ownership is a pretty big deal. For the user, e-cigarettes are almost certainly safer than combustible cigarettes. In addition, cigarettes aren’t just harmful for the user. Secondhand smoke kills an estimated 34,000 people yearly in the United States. Fires from cigarettes kill a further 1,000 people each year and cause millions of dollars in property damage.
Those figures being what they are, vaping isn’t without its own potential dangers. Improper battery handling can cause fires. Children have opened e-liquid bottles and overdosed on nicotine. Kids who have never smoked have tried vaping and have become addicted to nicotine. Obviously, you want to prevent those situations from occurring in your home – and the good news is that vaping responsibly as a parent isn’t that hard. This is our responsible parent’s guide to e-cigarette ownership.
Store All Vaping Products Out of Reach
Vaping requires supplies – a lot of them. After you’ve been vaping for a while, chances are that at any given time, you’ll have several bottles of e-liquid and boxes of replacement coils along with a few extra tanks and a backup vaping device or two. Don’t store your vaping supplies in random locations around the house; keep track of them – and keep your children away from them – by storing them in a single protected location. You might, for example, keep your vape gear in a high cabinet that your children can’t reach. A locked storage box is an even better solution. Only keep items out in the open if you’re actively using them.
Store E-Liquid in Bottles With Child-Safe Caps
Some e-liquids that ship in large bottles include smaller “unicorn” bottles for easy dispensing. The idea is that you pour your e-liquid from the larger bottle into the smaller unicorn bottle, and you carry the unicorn bottle with you. The problem with those unicorn bottles is that they often lack child-safe caps. Although they may hold the promise of making your life a little more convenient, you should avoid using any e-liquid bottle or dispenser that doesn’t have a child-safe cap. Remember that e-liquids often smell like food products. If you happen to leave a bottle of e-liquid out in the open and walk away from it for a moment, you’ll be very glad if the bottle is difficult for a child to open.
Don’t Store E-Liquid or Nicotine in Mislabeled Bottles
In 2016, a child almost died after drinking concentrated liquid nicotine stored in a bottle of children’s ibuprofen. Apparently, the child’s mother made her own e-liquids and was using the ibuprofen bottle for nicotine storage. The father didn’t know and gave the child what he thought was ibuprofen but was actually liquid nicotine with a strength of 70 mg/ml. The child had a seizure and nearly died. Others haven’t been so lucky; a one-year-old child in New York died after drinking liquid nicotine in 2014. Don’t ever store e-liquid or DIY e-liquid supplies in unlabeled bottles or bottles with different labels.
Use a Vape Mod With a Locking Function
There are two types of vaping devices. One type has an airflow sensor and generates vapor automatically when you puff. The other type has a fire button and only works by manual activation. An e-cigarette with a manual fire button is the best type of vaping device for a parent because it’ll have a locking function to prevent accidental activation. To engage the lock, you usually have to press the fire button five times quickly. Pressing the button five times again unlocks the device. If you happen to make a mistake and leave your vape mod out in the open, the locking function can help to prevent a child from picking the device up and using it.
Consider a Vape Mod With Removable Batteries
Are you concerned that your child might gain access to your vaping device while you’re away and figure out how to use it – even if it has a locking function? For the ultimate in safety, consider buying a device with removable batteries. If you charge your batteries in an external charger, then you can worry less about your device if you happen to leave it unattended; it can’t work if it has no batteries.
Charge Your Device or Batteries Out of Reach
Remember that the nicotine isn’t the only part of a vaping device that’s potentially dangerous; lithium-ion batteries can and do cause fires. If a metal object touches a battery’s positive and negative terminals simultaneously, the battery may overheat and catch fire. A battery charger that’s connected to a wall outlet could cause a short circuit if it’s dropped into a sink full of water. Children do all kinds of things they shouldn’t with objects that they don’t understand, so charge your batteries in a location that’s safe and out of reach.
Use a Child-Resistant Vape Tank
All of the other safety precautions in this article won’t matter much if you have a vape tank that slides open for refilling. If a child can simply open your device’s tank and pour the e-liquid out, that’s a terrible accident waiting to happen. Thankfully, many companies now make child-resistant vape tanks that aren’t so easy to open. Having a child-resistant tank might slow your filling process a bit, but it’ll do wonders for safety.
