School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

It was a 20th century cliché that kids would smoke in the bathroom and wash off cigarette butts to avoid getting caught. But the 21st century version is causing some real problems for one Maryland school. Like tobacco wrapped in paper, plastic vapes also do not evaporate.

At least four toilets have been destroyed after children flushed vape at Bel Air High School in Harford County last month, according to a report from CBS affiliate WJZ. Each toilet replaced reportedly costs the school $200. Some toilets have been repaired instead of buying new ones.

According to WJZ, there was a time when every bathroom in school had a toilet that wasn’t working because someone flushed vape in it. The school is now going to check students for vaping devices using a metal detecting wand.

“Due to the frequency and severity of the problem, school safety liaisons began using metal detection wands to screen students for vaping devices as an interim measure in an effort to address this growing problem,” the Harford County School District said in a statement to CBS.

Vaping took over combustible tobacco and cannabis products in the late 2010s, but cigarettes still have a slight edge over e-cigarettes among US adults. But vaping is more popular among children.

According to CDC’s 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey, youth tobacco use rates are near historic lows, with only 10.1% of high school students using any tobacco products and 7.8% using e-cigarettes for tobacco. The annual study, which was started in 1999, was ended by the Trump administration in 2025.

One selling point of switching from combustible tobacco products like cigarettes to vaping products was that people believed they were healthier. And while they are theoretically better under harm reduction principles, they come with their own problems. A new study from Australia found that e-cigarettes can cause cancer.

“Nicotine-based e-cigarettes are likely to be carcinogenic to humans who use them, causing an uncertain burden of oral cancer and lung cancer,” said a paper published Monday in the journal Carcinogenicity.

Health concerns aside, you really don’t want to flush things down the toilet that aren’t intended to be flushed. For example, adult wipes, sometimes sold as “dude wipes”, are marketed as flushable when they can wreak havoc in city sewer systems. It’s best to stick to toilet paper when leaving out dude wipes and vapes.