Company now offering ‘vape detector’ for use in school restrooms

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Schools are looking for ways to keep students from using e-cigarettes and to keep vaping out of the schools entirely.

New technology is helping. School districts across the country are contacting a New York tech company called Soter Technologies about their ‘vape detector’. Their detector can give them access to places where students may try to hide their vaping habits, like restrooms.

Soter CEO Derek Peterson says they are in 46 states across the country and they are getting calls from 60 schools a day. The detector can be put in restrooms or other places where schools can’t put video cameras or microphones. These detectors cost about $1,000 each. The detectors can detect electronic cigarette smoking and send an alert to a school official’s cell phone. That information can be used by the school to catch the students and help them develop a way to stop vaping.

“We actually give the schools the technology to log what they find in the bathroom. Help them understand the dynamics of what is happening. It also helps the schools with a best practices or anti-vaping campaign,” Derek Peterson, CEO of Soter Technologies, said.

Peterson said this is a three prong approach: sensory alerts, education, and awareness. He admits the detectors won’t do it alone.

We reached out to various school systems in our area and none of them are using the sensor device at this time, but Peterson says he expects to come into Alabama.

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