More than 3 million American middle and high school students — 16.5% of high schoolers and 4.5% of middle schoolers — use some sort of tobacco product, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s annual National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Most of those kids — about 2.5 million — use e-cigarettes, also called vapes, according to the FDA.

That equates to about 14% of all high schoolers and 3% of all middle schoolers. More than a quarter of those kids vape every day.

Those figures without a doubt include Northeast Michigan kids.

“Vaping has been an issue in both” Alpena High School and Thunder Bay Junior High School, APS Director of Communications Lee Fitzpatrick told News staff writer Temi Fadayomi for a recent story.

That’s why we say it was a smart investment for Alpena Public Schools to buy vape detectors to be installed in both buildings.

The vape detectors, manufactured by Verkada, check the air quality in its area for vape residue. Upon discovery of vape residue, the devices send out a silent email or text message to those on its response list.

In addition to being able to detect vape residue, the new devices can detect changes in humidity, temperature, and noise level. They can also alert those on the response list when they are being tampered with.

APS is hoping to have the devices installed before the end of the school year.

Vaping as a minor is illegal under state law and conviction can come with community service time ranging from 16 to 48 hours, depending on the number of offenses.

Vaping on school grounds violates APS policy and can result in a minimum of a suspension or a maximum of an expulsion.

Parents need to talk to their kids about the dangers of vaping — it can cause lung and heart disease — to try to make sure kids understand they shouldn’t vape in the first place.

But, in the meantime, we’re glad APS is making it harder for kids to vape on school grounds. The harder it is to vape, the less likely kids will keep doing it.

Well done, APS.