Family Cleans UP Piles of Toxic Vape Cartridges Found on Dublin Line in Acton

On April 14, Kristin Grant, and her Mother, Ann Kowalski were out walking Kristin’s dog on Dublin Line when they stumbled across a large, toxic mess. Someone had littered “a massive amount” of nicotine vape cartridges and vape pens in and around Turtle Lake Drive. “It was disgusting” Kristin tells Acton UP. She and her Mother returned home to grab bags to help clean up. They donned gloves and brought bags and headed back to the scene. What made Kristin decide to clean up? “There’s a lot of litter around here (Dublin/Mill St intersection)” but her concern was the wildlife that may attempt to consume the flavoured “buffet” of vape products. According to www.petpoisonhelpline.com she was right. “Nicotine poisoning in pets has a rapid onset of symptoms – generally within 15 to 60 minutes following ingestion. Symptoms for dogs and cats include vomiting, diarrhea, agitation, elevations in heart rate and respiration rate, depression, tremors, ataxia, weakness, seizures, cyanosis, coma, and cardiac arrest.” Also “if a single cartridge is ingested by a 50-pound dog, clinical signs of poisoning are likely to occur.” Extending that logic to smaller creatures, for example, a squirrel or fox could easily be poisoned by the amount of vape litter left. Ann described the situation as “disheartening” further saying “we should be proud of where we live and take care of the area.” It took the pair 10 minutes to clean up the mess, finding over 100 pieces which also included vape pen batteries, which should be recycled. They “just want to bring awareness” to littering as an issue and hope others might also pitch in and clean up their area. “Imagine if everyone just did a little” says Kristin.