The Elf BC 5000 model–now going under the name of EBCREATE–contains the equivalent of 12 packs of cigarettes in nicotine. | Photo by Sarah Choi
Story by Sarah Choi
ANONYMOUS TEEN: “You’re always going to find someone who has something. Um,
it’s not hard.”
TRACK 1: This 19-year-old has requested to be kept anonymous, so this video is of a
different user. The young person is talking about e-cigarettes—which she has been
using on and off since sophomore year in high school.
ANONYMOUS TEEN: “We see things all the time on social media about popcorn lung,
about people’s sh*t collapsing, diseases. And that’s not me. Hasn’t happened to me
yet.”
TRACK 2: Youth e-cigarette use is decreasing in North Carolina…but new vaping
products are constantly hitting the market. Disposable vaping products made up just
under 3 percent of all reported products in middle- and high school-aged users in
2019…and it’s jumped to over 60 percent in 2023. Doctor Ilona Jaspers is the Deputy
Director for the Center of Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology. She says
these new disposable e-cigarettes, such as the Elf Bar, are becoming more and more
potent.
JASPERS: “The Elf…what is it, BC 5000? That’s 5000 puffs. That is insane. I think I did
the back-of-the-envelope kind of calculations…that’s like 12 packs of cigarettes in terms
of the nicotine delivery. It’s an enormous amount of nicotine.”
TRACK 3: And researchers like Jaspers feel like they can’t keep up. She says once
she’s able to conduct research on a product, it’s either taken off the market, or a new
one becomes more popular.
JASPERS: “It is really a game of Whack-a-Mole.”
STAND-UP: *walking out from convenience store* With gas stations and convenience
stores like these selling several different kinds of e-cigarettes…it’s never been easier to
get access to them. *show disposable vape.* In North Carolina, you must be at least 21
years old to purchase an e-cigarette. But many sellers don’t check for I.D., even though
they’re required to.
ANONYMOUS TEEN: “When I was scared to go in, yes, people would buy them for me.
But they were all my age. So it was never somebody of age that I had to get to get it for
me.”
TRACK 4: It’s not just kids buying them for each other. Doctor Ceila Loughlin is a
pediatric pulmonologist at UNC Children’s Hospital. She says she’s seen parents who
have bought e-cigarettes for their children.
LOUGHLIN: “Especially in families where the parents may have smoked and are now
using vape products as a way to try to stop smoking, feeling like ‘oh, it’s not that bad.’
Their teenager can do it.”
TRACK 5: The anonymous 19-year-old believes that kids will continue to vape…even if
adults don’t want them to.
ANONYMOUS TEEN: “I mean, if they didn’t want it so bad, they shouldn’t have made it
so accessible.”
REPORTER TAG: In Chapel Hill, I’m Sarah Choi, reporting.
