Teachers and parents are advised to look out for Chinese e-cigarettes disguised as HIGHLIGHTER pens and containing as much nicotine as 50 cigarettes

Teachers and parents are warned to look out for new “high light” vapes from China that look like highlighters.

The vaporizers are packaged in bright neon colors that resemble typical pencil cases and come in 20 kid-friendly flavors like blueberry ice cream, mango, and strawberry banana.

But they do contain nicotine, namely be inhaled through the lungs when using e-cigarettes, which is possible cause damage can affect children’s lungs and brain, causing nicotine addiction, lung damage, gum disease and oral cancer.

The highlighter vapes contain 50 milligrams of nicotine, which means that one cartridge is equivalent to the nicotine of 50 cigarettes. It is double what is legal in most EU countries.

As the new semester begins in September, teachers are fighting the e-cigarette epidemic at school.

Previous research has shown that the average teenage vaper in America starts at age 13, which is even lower as of 2014. 2.5 million high school and middle school students

The vapes are packaged in bright neon colors to look like a typical pencil case and come in 20 kid-friendly flavors like blueberry ice cream, mango, and strawberry banana

Users suck on the pen end of the e-cigarette. The highlighter design makes it easy for kids to hide them in their pencil case at school

More than 2.5 million children in the US are using e-cigarettes – an increase of half a million from last year and a reversal of the downward trend of recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 2.55 million Americans in middle or high school admit to using the device in the past 30 days. That’s a jump of 500,000, or 24 percent, from 2021. It’s the first increase since the CDC began collecting annual data in 2019

The vapes are manufactured by Shenzhen Amdecig Technology based in Shenzhen, China.

The company’s website states the devices are “not for minors” but the packaging and taste are aimed at a younger audience.

Minou Jones, chairman of the Detroit Wayne Oakland Tobacco-Free Coalition, said fox 2: “Young people hide the use of these products in schools and from their parents, making it very dangerous.”

Disposable vapes seem to be the e-cigarette of choice among youngsters, most of whom buy them in bodegas.

In the US, it’s illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-21s, but many minors still have the opportunity to get their hands on them.

“Because our jobs aren’t hard enough,” Missouri high school English teacher Dawn Finley wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “These are vape pens, not highlighters.”

Stefan Bjes, a patrol officer who has worked with the Chicago Police Department for over 19 years and previously served as a school resource officer, told the story FoxNews E-cigarettes are pouring in from China and are completely unregulated.

“Because they are unregulated, they could contain hazardous substances that can cause long-term harm to users.”

The official added, “There is no way of knowing their nicotine content or finding out what else might be in them.”

“We know that the Chinese manufacturers are also making and selling these illegal disposable vaporizers in the United States.”

He urged parents to educate their children about the dangers of e-cigarettes and teachers to be on the lookout for e-cigarettes in disguise in schools.

Early studies warning of its harmful effects were initially dismissed as outliers or criticized as misinformation about the tobacco industry suddenly threatened by the introduction of smokeless nicotine products.

But scientific evidence is accumulating to point to their harmful effects, showing that they cause almost or as much harm as traditional cigarettes.

According to the CDC, at least 2.6 million children in the US are addicted to e-cigarettes, reversing a downward trend seen in recent years.

The report found that 2.55 million middle and high school students had used the device in the past 30 days.

That’s a jump of 500,000, or 24 percent, from 2021. It’s the first increase since 2019.

Super-strong, single-use devices — like Elf bars — were the most commonly used type of device (55 percent).

The vast majority of children (85 percent) had used flavored e-cigarettes, which federal regulators have cracked down on in recent years over concerns they are targeting children.