EAU CLAIRE (WQOW) - Eau Claire County schools will soon have disposal kits for students to safely get rid of vaping devices.
According to the Eau Claire City-County Health Department, the county recently received $35,000 from a national settlement with Juul Labs.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said the settlement included 32 states, and was from an investigation into Juul's marketing of the devices and how it targets youth.
Emily Carlson, a health educator with the health department, said vapes are not safe to dispose in a regular garbage can because of the toxic chemicals in them. So, they need a special place to dispose of them.
"There was a gap in knowledge of how to safely dispose of them and how to safely store them," said Carlson. "And so the goal of the kits is to provide not only the kits themselves for safe disposal and storage, but also education around the proper way to do all of that."
The kits are still in development so there is not exact cost on how much each kit will cost or what they will look like. They plan on having them in schools in the fall, although which schools hasn't been decided yet.
If the kits are successful, they want to offer them in community spaces as well.
