Canadian Schoolgirl Drinks Eliquid
A nine-year old schoolgirl was rushed to hospital after drinking e-liquid
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by Dave Cross
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The nine-year old was rushed to a local hospital in New Brunswick after she drank “e-cigarette fluids from a brightly labelled ‘Unicorn Milk’ bottle,” according to her mother, Lea L'Hoir, a consultant with the Housing and Homelessness Unit.
Her Grade 5 girl wasn’t alone; all of her friends took turns to taste the strawberry-flavoured liquid. L’Hoir believes it is all the fault of the bright packaging featuring a unicorn and being colourful: “They decided to taste it and after that, my daughter wasn't feeling too good.”
“Why, you know, a product for smoking, that is for people 18yrs and older, would have so attractive drawing and an attractive smell like that? It could happen again – I went to a website and looked at the effects of concentrated nicotine, and I was completely horrified!”
As can be seen from the image, the tube of liquid did not contain “concentrated nicotine”, although all of the media reports state it did. It was a 3mg juice. Despite this low level, and the fact that the girl is reported to only have tried a few drops, she complained of feeling nauseous, dizziness and having chest pains.
"I didn't sleep, I didn't sleep last night," L'Hoir added. "I was completely horrified that she could have passed away, maybe if she had taken, you know, more of the bottle." The mother is now demanding that bright packaging and flavours children like are banned.
Trevor Bostick is the manufacturer of this "Unicorn Milk" product. He owns New Beginnings Vape in Fredericton, and has said he’s shelved the liquid concerned: "It was a terrible feeling, it floored me and I was in shock for the whole day. I hardly slept last night. I don't want anybody to think it was marketing scheme for children. It's a very hard market to tap into. There are so many people doing this, and we were just trying to make a more marketable thing. We'll never make another label with a cartoon label on it. It's something I wish we hadn't released, to be honest with you."
Ready to jump on a bandwagon, the anti-vape New Brunswick Medical Society hollered for tougher regulations. A spokesperson said: “That speaks to a need for tougher regulation and tougher oversight around how these products are marketed and that oversight rests with government. In cases like this where there are risks to the public and unknown risks to the health of individuals, then steps need to be taken.”
Then adding: “Many of the flavours are attractive to kids, there's probably a thousand e-cigarette flavours. Unicorn milk is not really a flavour; obviously this is a market approach. Clearly, there's a concern and we don't want youth using e-cigarettes.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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