Some of the flavors seem to target children or adolescents more than adults.
A fourteen years old teen is now partially blind due to electronic cigarette use. Leor Domatov was spending time with his friends, browsing e-cigarette supplies when the salesperson from an electronic cigarette kiosk connected a device to a wrong battery and gave it to the adolescent. The cigarette exploded in his hands, leaving him blind in one eye and emotionally scarred for life.
A couple of days ago Domatov and his friends were visiting Brooklyn’s Kings Plaza Center when he decided to try out the electronic cigarettes that were being sold at the Plaza Vapes store. The clerk that was present at the kiosk on that day did not ID any of the children, even though it was obvious that neither of them was 21 or older, which is the legal age of purchasing tobacco-related products in the state of New York.
Not only did the salesperson ignore the young age of the customers when they asked for more information about the products that Plaza Vapes was offering, but the clerk proceeded on handing the devices to the underage boy.
What happened next is a lesson for all children and adolescents that believe that smoking is cool. Upon demonstrating to the teens how the gizmo works, the salesperson connected the wrong type of battery to a device. This lead to an explosion that caused irreparable damage to the boy’s eye.
A teen is now partially blind due to electronic cigarette use. And the incident shouldn’t have happened. It’s the fault of so many people that the Domatov family’s attorney will spend a couple of days only compiling a list of names.
Let’s start with the salesperson. The clerk didn’t ask for ID, he or she just proceeded to show a couple of teens how to use an e-cigarette. And to add insult to injury, that person was incompetent enough to connect the wrong battery to the device in question.
But is it really his or her fault that a store hired the weakest, most ignorant person it could find? Or that the kiosk had no obvious sign displayed to announce that its products are destined for people that are 21 or older?
Furthermore, the vaping industry is getting away with a lot of stuff. They are advertising flavors that seem more appealing to children than adults. You can find electronic cigarettes with popcorn, cereal, bubblegum, cotton candy, and other such childhood flavors.
A teen is now partially blind due to electronic cigarette use, but who is really to blame?
Image source: Flickr
