Royal Oak company develops test to see if kids have been vaping
ROYAL OAK, Mich. (FOX 2) - With a state ban on flavored e-cigarettes and vapes set to take effect in a matter of weeks, a Royal Oak lab informing parents about tests they can get to see if their teen is vaping.
"If I ever suspected there was some funny business going on with my children, I would not hesitate to bring them in, get them checked, just to make sure they remain honest," said Dr. Sajad Zalzala.
Dr. Zalzala owns Any Lab Test Now in Royal Oak and says it's the first lab in metro Detroit to offer testing without a doctor's prescription.
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"We can use a urine sample, hair sample, blood sample, even nail sample to test for either presence of nicotine or presence of THC," Zalzala said.
Dr. Zalzala says parents can get results from an instant urine test in a matter of minutes. A blood draw can detect traces of nicotine in two hours. A test of hair strands can determine if someone has been vaping as far back as three months.
"One of the dangers of vaping is that it can be so unregulated," he said. "Sometimes you can get more nicotine out of vaping than you would out of a pack of cigarettes."
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a temporary ban on flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products last week to keep them out kids' hands. The state health department says the number of kids vaping jumped 900 percent between 2011 and 2015. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking into more than 400 cases of lung disease that could be traced to vaping.
While it's illegal to sell e-cigarettes and vaping products to anyone under the age of 18, kids are still getting their hands on them. One of the concerns about the flavored e-cigarettes ban is that it could kill businesses. That ban will last for six months and could be renewed after that for another six months.