After being called for a clogged toilet, one plumber found themselves facing off against a seemingly immovable opponent. And after being forced to break the toilet open, they saw just what had been clogging it.
"Great place for your vape pen," they wrote on the subreddit r/maintenance. "Found this perfectly wedged in there. SMH."
The Reddit user included a photo of the offending vape, which was wedged so tightly into the toilet's pipe it seemed impossible that it had gotten there in the first place.
But for other plumbers, the sight was all too familiar.
"I've replaced many toilets, rivals, and lift station pumps that died to these," one person wrote. "Spent around 30k in 2 years mostly for the pumps."
"I had the same thing today," another shared. "Vape pen wedged in the trap. We spent an hour trying to get it free and it wouldn't budge. Replaced the toilet."
One commenter, knowing how much time and money goes into replacing a broken toilet, said simply: "Charge the resident."
From breaking toilets to popping tires, it seems that disposable vapes are just as hazardous to "bystanders" as they are to the people who use them.
The negative health impacts of vapes are becoming more documented. A study from The Johns Hopkins University found thousands of chemicals present in vapes. Among them, they reported, were "three chemicals never previously found in e-cigarettes, a pesticide and two flavorings linked with possible toxic effects and respiratory irritation."
And these health impacts are only one part of the issue. The consumption of disposable vape pens and cartridges is a major contributor to hazardous litter.
In addition to popping tires and putting cyclists and drivers at risk, the vapes can attract the attention of animals, who could easily end up with a cartridge — like this one, which was capable of destroying a toilet — stuck in their intestines.
That's why organizations like the American Lung Association and the Truth Initiative are working to combat vaping from an early age, hoping that an increased awareness of both the personal and environmental harms of vaping will deter them from adopting such a dirty habit.
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