West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey has issued a consumer alert about Chinese vape products that look like smartphones and other smart devices, which may be attractive to youth. These products hide the fact that they are vaping devices, making them harder for parents to detect.
Chinese vape products are flooding into the country and West Virginia through mislabeling and deception. Reports state that approximately 90 percent of the Chinese vape products entering the United States go undetected.
“China is sending billions of dollars of vape products to the United States, but they intentionally mislabel these products to avoid FDA regulation,” McCuskey said. “We don’t know what’s in these products, so adults should be aware of that risk. The Chinese government has banned many of these products in its own country because of high nicotine concentration, flavoring, and marketing. But my biggest concern is that China is building vapes into games and smart devices to market these illegal Chinese products to our children.”
As part of an ongoing effort to address this problem, McCuskey and 27 other attorney generals urged officials in the Trump Administration to continue and to strengthen their efforts to crack down on China and its co-conspirators distributing these harmful products in the United States.
State and federal officials have found vaping devices to contain urine, methamphetamine, and even heroin. While he works with the Trump Administration to stop the flow of dangerous products marketed to children, McCuskey alerts West Virginians to be vigilant.
“I’m a dad to two girls, so I understand parents’ constant worry. We all want to protect our kids, and that job is harder when foreign actors directly target them. I hope to inform the public of this danger while we work with the Trump Administration to stop the problem at its source,” McCuskey said.
