USA- Seeker.com reports that Juul, the major seller of e-cigarettes, could be creating a higher rate of teen addiction than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Juul is now selling about two-thirds of the e-cigarettes on the market, and the company has faced scrutiny for the product’s popularity among America’s youth. The study, which was conducted by the […]
USA- Seeker.com reports that Juul, the major seller of e-cigarettes, could be creating a higher rate of teen addiction than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Juul is now selling about two-thirds of the e-cigarettes on the market, and the company has faced scrutiny for the product’s popularity among America’s youth.
The study, which was conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine, was published in JAMA. Juul sells devices that look like flash drives. The product uses nicotine that is extracted from tobacco plants. A pod of Juul contains around the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.
The product is often marketed as a way to help smokers quit by mimicking smoking by allowing the user to vape nicotine. However, the drug has gained popularity among teenagers. The new users of e-cigarettes are not trying to kick a smoking habit; they are becoming addicts of vaping.
Lawsuits have been filed against the company for causing people to become addicted to nicotine while carrying out deceptive marketing practices designed to present the product as safe.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been investigating the company over concerns about sales and marketing to children. The FDA carried out a surprise inspection of the company this October, in which over 1,000 pages were seized.
The health risks associated with e-cigarettes are still not well documented. The practice has grown rapidly in the United States, but even Juul as a company is only a little more than three years old.
The study showed that Juul using teens are more likely to use the product than are smokers and that they use Juuls more frequently than do smokers. The implication is that there are more teen addicts from Juuls than from cigarettes.
