A New York school district has begun installing e-cigarette detectors in middle school bathrooms.
The FlySense FS300 e-cigarette detector, installed at Lindenhurst Middle School on Long Island, can detect nicotine and THC and also make a sound to alert school officials if there is a fight or bullying.
Two e-cigarette detectors were installed in each bathroom at the middle school, and the city of Babylon paid for the devices using American Rescue Plan funds.
“The device not only detects nicotine in the air, but also THC, and it can also detect aggressive behavior from students trying to bully or fight in the bathroom,” Derek Peterson, whose company Soter Technologies developed the device, told CBS New York.
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A New York school district has begun installing e-cigarette detectors in middle school bathrooms. (iStock)
The detector can pick up changes in air quality and sounds, and Peterson said the device uses artificial intelligence algorithms that can distinguish between the sound of a door or toilet lid slamming and “when someone is being disruptive in the bathroom.”
But Peterson said those devices don’t have microphones.
If a problem is detected, Principal Frank Naccarato is immediately notified by email, and students caught vaping are connected to specialized intervention services.
“There’s still an impact, but now there’s an education component. There has to be research done on how e-cigarettes harm the human body,” Naccarato told CBS New York.
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The FlySense FS300 e-cigarette detector at Lindenhurst Middle School on Long Island can detect nicotine and THC. (Getty Images)
Since the detectors were installed two weeks ago, two students have already been caught and specialist services contacted.
The school district began considering installing detectors in bathrooms after 15-year-old student Vanessa Probst suggested it after she and her friends learned that some of her classmates were so addicted to e-cigarettes that they would go to the bathroom to smoke.
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“I was researching it and learned about the side effects and the possibility of getting popcorn lung and the severe cancers that can occur,” she told CBS New York.
The detectors are expected to be installed soon at Lindenhurst High School and other school districts, including Copiague and Wyandanch.
