Many teenagers partake in vaping as a recreational practice, but many teenagers are quitting this habit not because of the harmful long term health effects, but because of the crisis in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In order to produce electronics like phones, vapes and electric cars, resources like cobalt are needed. The Democratic Republic of Congo is very rich and plentiful with this element.
According to Visual Capitalist, “[The DRC accounts] for 73% of global output in 2022.”
The country remains one of the poorest in the world. Yet, they are home to some of the richest minerals and resources. This is due to exploitation and slave-like conditions that Congolese people face today.
The World Bank reports in 2018, three-quarters of the country’s population lived on less than two dollars a day.
Siddharth Kara, a fellow at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Kennedy School, which has been researching modern-day slavery, recognizes the dangers of mining these resources.
“Cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe — and there are hundreds of thousands of poor Congolese people touching and breathing it day in and day out. Young mothers with babies strapped to their backs, all breathing in this toxic cobalt dust,” said Kara.
Forbes writes, “no one will ever know how many women, men and children have been killed by cobalt mining operations in the Congo, but the tally is likely to be thousands of lives per year.”
The transition into being more green and using products that are more sustainable aren’t without harm.
While manufacturers are making statements about switching to electric cars from the traditional gasoline powered cars, many emphasize it as a way to save lives.
Because of the unsafe cobalt-mining conditions, the creation of electric and sustainably-powered cars puts more lives in harm’s way.
The outrage over the crisis followed November 8, where a video of a Congolese man setting himself on fire went viral. The video was origally posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, according to Bnn Network, “standing in front of a crowd in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, holding a sign that reads ‘Stop the genocide in Congo.’ He then pours gasoline over his body and lights a match, engulfing himself in flames.”
Teenagers are playing a role in this fight as they want to contribute to ending the exploitation and genocide of the Congolese people.
One way they are doing so is ending their consumption of products produced by cobalt. Teens are avoiding buying more technology and making use of their existing products.
In a video about creating change for Congo, TikTok star @itskristinamf said, “the reason it is still happening is because of how much we consume…the only thing that I genuinely buy all the time is my vape, and my vape has cobalt in it.”
She said, “There is a silent genocide going on right now and it is from my vape, it’s from my phone, it’s from my TV, it’s from electric cars.”
Following discourse on the TikTok app, many influencers and regular TikTok users are following in these footsteps. Some are posting about the Congolese people to bring more awareness to the situation, while others are posting videos dropping their vapes into water in solidarity.
Some that are unable to donate are posting filters with the Congolese flag to generate money for the people of Congo. One of the popular filters, labeled “Effect For Congo” by @therealoverloadcomedy, has generated thousands of dollars and has been used in over 790,000 videos in support for Congo alone. She has also made dozens of filters gaining revenue for countries currently in crisis like Palestine, Sudan and Syria.
Other creators like @CamsDonuts, @jabalyamadeand and many more are participating in creating a donation filter based system through the TikTok Creator Funds. All their filters amount to millions of videos from users gaining attention and support for these nations.
Teenagers in the west are doing whatever they can to support and liberate the people all over the world, even going as far as boycotting new technologies and avoiding purchasing products like smartphones, tablets, computers, electric cars and even vapes.
Supporting and standing in solidarity with the Democratic Republic of the Congo seems far more dire to the younger generations, which is evident in their willingness to give up vaping to save lives.
