Mechanic shares photo of bizarre discovery inside vehicle tire: 'Not mine'

A car mechanic encountered a bizarre repair job and shared a photo to the community at r/Justrolledintotheshop. Redditors were bemused, to say the least. 

The image showed that a destroyed vape pen had punctured the tire of a vehicle that had come into the garage. 

While this is a wild departure from the usual nails and other debris that end up popping tires, vapes are increasingly becoming a road hazard. They are equally a safety hazard to wildlife. Besides the threat of their sharp casings, the devices' lithium-ion batteries are explosive when breached. 

Even when disposed of properly, vapes end up in landfills where they leach common e-waste chemicals into soil and water supplies. Vapes and vape pods shed plastic particles over time, too. When ingested, microplastics can contribute to digestive, endocrine, renal, circulatory, immune, neurological, and reproductive issues. 

Worse still, the manufacturing of vapes generates a wealth of emissions and uses raw materials. This atmospheric pollution contributes to growingly destructive extreme weather such as floods, droughts, and heat waves. These disasters in turn incur ecological, housing, agricultural, and other costs. 

Of course, using a vape is a significant health risk in and of itself via exposure to harmful chemicals, including lead, nickel, and antimony.

Curbing the safety, health, and environmental risks imposed by vapes is as simple as avoiding their use altogether. Better still, you can take local action to clean up vape litter in your neighborhood by joining dedicated volunteer groups. At an even larger scale, some jurisdictions have enacted restrictions on vape sales to protect the public. 

The original poster joked that they had "found your vape" lodged in the tire. 

"That's not mine, but thank you," one community member replied.

"Was the air pressure… high?" another person quipped.

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