SAN FRANCISCO, CA- According to Nbcnews.com, high school students are becoming addicted to Juuls and e-cigarettes at an alarming rate. Some students talk about being introduced to the product by other teens and trying it without even understanding what the product is or that it is highly addictive. Juuls only became available on the market […]
SAN FRANCISCO, CA- According to Nbcnews.com, high school students are becoming addicted to Juuls and e-cigarettes at an alarming rate. Some students talk about being introduced to the product by other teens and trying it without even understanding what the product is or that it is highly addictive.
Juuls only became available on the market about three years ago, and since then its popularity has skyrocketed among teens. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are around 3 million high school students currently using Juuls. The number represents a 75 percent increase over last year.
Juuls is the leader in the e-cigarette market and has more than a 74 percent market share.
The FDA’s Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has referred to teen usage rates as an epidemic, and in September, gave manufacturers of the products 60 days to develop a plan to limit access if their products to youths. As the deadline nears, the FDA is struggling to determine their next move. They could ban the product because of its risks to young people, but that decision would be criticized because the product is marketed as a tool to help smokers quit.
While the product is ostensibly meant to help, people stop smoking, around 46.7 percent of underage people who use the product have never even tried smoking a tobacco cigarette.
Because of how new the product is, there is no data on the long-term impact of using e-cigarettes. E-cigarette manufacturers are not permitted to market their products by making claims that they are less harmful to a person’s health than traditional cigarettes.
Studies indicate that people who use e-cigarettes do have higher levels of the same chemicals in their systems that smokers have, although the levels are lower with those who only use e-cigarettes. Still, some of the substances are potentially carcinogenic and may cause heart disease, heart attacks and popcorn lung.
