Sixteen-year-old Claire Hering thought vaping was safe until it was too late and she was hooked. “It’s better than other drugs. That’s what I always heard,” the Hopkins High School junior said. Attorney General Keith Ellison says Juul Labs is largely responsible for Hering and other teens’ misconception that e-cigarettes are safe and not addictive....
Sharon Levy, director of the adolescent substance use and addiction programme at the children’s hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, is quick to recall the first time a teenager with vaping-induced nicotine poisoning arrived at her clinic. “This was about a year and a half ago,” she says. “I remember sitting, talking with him about his...
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday signed sweeping legislation to restrict the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products, making his state the first to enact such stringent controls. The new law, which is set to take effect on June 1, 2020, is not a blanket ban. Instead, it limits the sale of flavored...
Fresh off his appearance in New York City last week alongside New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Adam Fine, the principal at East Hampton High School, will accompany seven students and his counterpart from Southampton High School to bring their anti-vaping campaign to the floor of Congress. The seven students, Erin Kennedy, Lucia...
The District of Columbia is joining several states in suing e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, saying the company’s online ads and promotions illegally targeted minors. Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine announced the lawsuit Tuesday, alleging that Juul’s viral marketing contributed to the surge in underage vaping by teens in the district and across the...
The Palm Beach County School District is suing the JUUL electronic cigarette company, joining more than a dozen districts across the nation seeking to recover costs of combating the growing use of vaping products among teens. A federal lawsuit filed Friday in the Southern District of Florida demands compensation for “direct and consequential economic...
A Hamilton Southeastern senior is speaking out about the dangers of vaping. Ashley Stevens said her year-long habit nearly cost her her life. Bedridden and hooked up to all sorts of equipment at Community North Hospital she said, "I've been through a lot and this is the worst pain every been thru and I don't...
Walker McKnight is getting healthier but has a long road ahead including removal of his left lung and kidney transplants Walker McKnight remembers that first time he took a hit off of a Juul e-cigarette. “It was a really intense, good feeling,” he tells PEOPLE. “I could feel my whole body throbbing and tingling.”...
The company planted the seeds of a public health crisis by marketing to millennials, who had low smoking rates, and it ignored evidence that teenagers were using its products. In the face of mounting investigations, subpoenas and lawsuits, Juul Labs has insisted that it never marketed or knowingly sold its trendy e-cigarettes and flavored...
A form of vitamin E could be behind recent vaping illnesses and death The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced a preliminary finding that implicates a vitamin E additive as the potential cause of lung injury from THC vaping. The agency examined fluid samples from the lungs of 29 patients with vaping-related illness...
Nearly 50 people have died in recent months in the United States from vaping-related respiratory illnesses. The New York City Council agreed on Thursday to ban flavored e-cigarettes amid heightened concerns about the use of such products, making New York City the most populous jurisdiction in the country to impose such a ban. The ban...
Juul has been meeting with international politicians, regulators, and officials to lobby on vaping rules, putting forward health claims it cannot legally make in the U.S. The embattled American vape company Juul is pushing foreign governments to ditch strict e-cigarette regulations as it aggressively expands across the globe in an attempt to offset lost...
The Tennessee Health Department says 68 Tennesseans have lung injuries from E-cigarettes and two have died. Now, a deeper look at exactly what teens like Harrison Myers of Sevierville were inhaling. Myers played basketball throughout his school years and says he used to dunk on a 10 foot goal. Now a shoot around takes...
A House panel on Tuesday advanced a sweeping ban on flavored tobacco — including vaping products — as Democrats condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to stall his plans for muscular restrictions amid lobbying from political allies and the vape industry. The bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is far more aggressive...
28-year-old Kyle Boyd dies from ‘vaping pneumonia,’ family says While still grieving, the family of 28-year-old Kyle Boyd wants others to fight back against what they’re calling a “silent epidemic:” vaping. The Orange County family blames Boyd’s death on vaping, saying he died from a case of pneumonia that has been linked to vaping. “He came...
By the time Juul’s co-creator stood before a tech audience in April 2016, ads for the e-cigarette aimed to distance the product from a toxic past: “Our company has its roots in Silicon Valley, not in fields of tobacco.” But when James Monsees, a soon-to-be billionaire, projected a 30-year-old tobacco document on the screen...
Lawsuits against e-cigarette maker Juul were filed this week by the states of California and New York, two Washington state counties and a school district for allegedly targeting minors. The lawsuits claim Juul's advertising campaigns target young people to use nicotine without knowing the associated risks by enticing them with flavor pods. Juul spokesman Austin...
New York state officials have joined their counterparts in California and North Carolina in suing e-cigarette maker Juul, alleging the company created marketing campaigns that targeted youth and helped fuel teenage lung illness and — in some cases — vaping-related deaths. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the state's lawsuit Tuesday. State health officials said...
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday announced his office has sued Juul, accusing the San Francisco e-cigarette company of illegally advertising to young people and failing to warn consumers about the potential health risks of using Juul products. The suit also accuses Juul of failing to verify the age of California consumers and...
The Massachusetts state house of representatives passed a bill banning flavored tobacco products, including flavored e-cigarettes, in a major defeat for America’s embattled vaping industry. Behind the bill’s momentum is an unlikely pressure group: suburban Boston teenagers, outraged at what they saw as the immense health damage done to their friends and peers in...
Seattle Public Schools on Thursday announced a lawsuit against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs. The lawsuit alleges that Juul’s advertising and product design deliberately targets minors and has contributed to a rise in youth vaping and addiction to nicotine. The district says it is asking a court to order the company to stop marketing to...
Although e-cigarettes were allegedly created to help adults give up their smoking habits, they quickly became a starter pack for young people to consume nicotine. Offering flavors such as watermelon, mango and mint, e-cigarette suppliers have been accused of enticing young people with their product. Several states and major cities have restricted or outright...
A vaping ban in Juul Labs’s hometown comfortably survived an election day vote on Tuesday, making San Francisco the first major U.S. city to prohibit all e-cigarette sales. The ban, effective January, is a major blow to Juul, which spent $15.7 million on a campaign to stop the ban before abandoning all efforts...
More than half of teenagers who vape use Juul e-cigarettes, and its mint pods are the No. 1 flavor favored by high school kids, according to two new studies published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The studies come amid a spike in teen use of e-cigarettes that’s prompted the Trump...
The San Francisco startup that invented the groundbreaking Juul e-cigarette had a central goal during its development: captivating users with the first hit. The company had concluded that consumers had largely rejected earlier e-cigarettes, former employees told Reuters, because the devices either failed to deliver enough nicotine or delivered it with a harsh taste....
In 2016, I had never heard of vaping. When an unexpected package addressed to my 16-year-old son arrived on my porch, I opened it. I had no idea what to make of the device inside the box, so I asked my son about it when he arrived home from school. “It’s just something I...
Amid growing concerns over the rise of teen vaping, San Mateo County is taking a stand against the electronic cigarette industry that one leader said is “preying on our children.” The board of supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance banning the sale and distribution of electronic cigarettes in unincorporated San Mateo County. Flavored e-cigarette...
Nathan Harrington doesn’t remember the fever and vomiting that prompted his mother to take him to an urgent care center. He can’t remember the ambulance ride from the center to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena campus, in Henderson. He doesn’t remember his friends crying in his hospital room because they thought he would die,...
Ilona Jaspers initially approached the outbreak of vaping-related illnesses with a clinical curiosity. As an inhalation toxicologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jaspers has for nearly 20 years studied the health effects of many substances that can be inhaled. Seven of those years involved researching e-cigarettes. She had been following...
Dr. Thomas Erling Kottke looks forward to a future when we might say, “Boy, was that a dumb idea.” The medical director for well-being with HealthPartners, and a cardiologist for 40 years, Kottke of St. Paul is talking about ubiquitous e-cigarettes. His particular concern is young people with developing brains who have taken...
The move could effectively shut off one of the biggest markets for an industry that is facing pressure around the world. China issued its starkest warning yet over electronic cigarettes, calling on the industry on Friday to stop selling and advertising the products online. Citing health concerns for minors, a Chinese regulator and the state...
Children as young as 11 years old are vaping and being hospitalized in New Jersey, an even younger age than reported a year ago, according to a report released Thursday by the state's hospitals. The use of e-cigarettes peaks in New Jersey between ages 18 and 24, even as the availability of dessert- and...
A public health official worries the high number of places selling vaping supplies “normalized” the use of tobacco products for young people. Hawaii gas stations and convenience stores are among the largest retailers of electronic smoking device products in Hawaii and there are more vape shops per capita on neighbor islands, according to a...
Researchers say it’s a mixture of marketing and economics, plus Hawaii getting a head start on a trend that started in Asia. When Tom Lindsey’s foster son’s e-cigarette cartridge accidentally fell to the floor, they both dove for it. Lindsey got to it first, but that didn’t end the scuffle. “He bites my hand just...
Most experts agree that sweet flavors like cotton candy and mango help entice teens to try their first-ever puff on an electronic cigarette. But what keeps them coming back? Flavors appear to play a role in that too, according to a new study of Los Angeles high school students. Those who vaped with flavors...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned an electronic cigarette company to stop selling nearly 100 flavored vaping products that can’t be legally sold because they lack required marketing authorization. The Clifton, New Jersey-based Eonsmoke LLC sells flavored e-liquids that are compatible with popular devices made by companies like Juul. The FDA said Eonsmoke...
Tasty flavors entice young people to try e-cigarettes, getting them hooked on what can become a lifetime habit, a new study shows. "Children and youth prefer sweet flavors. We know that flavors increase appeal to young or inexperienced users," said lead researcher Andrea Villanti, an associate professor with the University of Vermont's Center on...
At 17 years old, Samantha Domingo was the youngest speaker at an informational legislative briefing on vaping and e-cigarettes on Thursday. The Farrington High School student and Tobacco Free Hawaii Youth Council member told Hawaii legislators that many of her classmates have become addicted to nicotine by vaping e-cigarettes. “I’ve seen the effects their nicotine...
"Juul was the only change in this boy’s otherwise healthy life," a family attorney said. The night 18-year-old Daniel Wakefield died of breathing complications, he wasn't wheezing or showing any other signs it was hard to breathe, his mother said. He was spending the night at his dad's house. She talked to him on the...
It did not take long for word that people were falling ill from vaping to spread among teenagers. The news appeared on Snapchat, where worried adolescents read the grim details of the mysterious illness and shared them with their peers in group text messages. Then there were the photos of young patients that...
When Will tried his first vape during his sophomore year, he didn't know what to expect. It was just something he had vaguely heard about at school. "I just sort of remember using it a bunch of times, like in a row," he says. "And there's this huge buzz-sensation-like head rush. And I just...
A decade after Congress gave the F.D.A. the power to regulate tobacco products like e-cigarettes, the federal government has repeatedly delayed or weakened efforts that could have protected teenagers. In 2009, not long after Dr. Margaret Hamburg became commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a package arrived at her home. Inside was a...
Months after John Steffen died in Nebraska, officials said his death was part of a mysterious outbreak of vaping-related deaths and illnesses. In the spring, Kathleen Fimple buried her husband, John, and by the fall, she had reluctantly settled into her new life as a widow. She accepted what the doctors told her: that he...
For many years, my lead-in question with adolescents, after I asked the parent to leave the room at pediatric appointments, was whether the kid had ever tried smoking cigarettes. It made a reasonable lead-in because it felt less highly charged than asking about marijuana or other substances, and in recent decades, the answer...
It's a terrifying event for a parent, your athletic, happy child at a football game one night and in a hospital bed the next. "I almost threw up. I just couldn't believe it.," said Erin Bell Griffin. It wasn't just that her 17-year-old was in the hospital, it was why he was in the hospital...
Taylor Webb just drove the two hours home from college without his trusty companion of the last couple years, a sidekick so tiny he could hide it in the palm of his hand. He broke up with his vaping device in August because it had taken over his life. He was coming home to Johnson...
The cause of the outbreak is still unknown, and the only advice health officials can offer so far is to avoid vaping. The outbreak of lung illnesses linked to vaping grew by more than 200 cases in a week, now totaling 1,299, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. Twenty-nine people have...
Tobacco-cessation help lines — traditionally aimed at cigarette smokers — are receiving a surge in calls from people who vape and want to quit Hotlines to quit smoking, or “quitlines,” were designed to help people kick cigarette habits, but calls and texts from people who use e-cigarettes are climbing as more people fall ill...
New York City has filed a federal lawsuit against 22 online e-cigarette sellers, accusing them of selling their products to residents under the age of 21, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, says New Yorkers under the age of 21 were able to readily get onto the websites...
Piper Johnson was all packed and ready to drive across country with her mom to start college when the 18-year-old noticed a pain in her chest. She took an Advil and hoped the pain would go away. It didn't. During the drive from her hometown of New Lenox, Ill., near Chicago, to the University...
Walgreens and Kroger said Monday that they would stop selling e-cigarettes. The move makes them the latest national retailers to get out of the vaping business amid health concerns and growing regulatory scrutiny. Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain by total locations, will stop selling e-cigarettes permanently, spokesman Phil Caruso said in an email. "This decision...
The lawsuits accuse Juul of endangering students and forcing educators to divert time and money to fight an epidemic of nicotine addiction among teenagers. With school districts across the United States scrambling to reverse the rise of vaping among teenagers, three of them on Monday filed suit against Juul, the e-cigarette manufacturer, accusing it...
The 16-year-old looked sick. Tubes snaked around her face to deliver oxygen through her nose. Medication coursed into her veins through an IV. The culprit, her doctors said, was something in the e-cigarettes she used to inhale both nicotine and THC. Such reactions are rare though potentially serious: Of the 805 Americans reported...
No doubt you’ve heard by now how dangerous vaping is. The mysterious vaping lung disease causing lung injuries to young adults who vape in 46 states? That should be enough to convince you it’s time to quit vaping. But if you need a little more motivation, we’ve got it for you. Did you...
Unicorn Vomit. Cotton Candy. Gummy Bear. Skittles. Some teenagers who tried these playful vaping flavors thought they were just inhaling water vapor — not also nicotine, a chemical considered as addictive as heroin and cocaine. Now, as a mysterious vaping-related lung disease has doctors and parents urging the nation’s 3.6 million young users to quit,...
When e-cigarettes hit the U.S. market in 2007, they were promoted as a safer, healthier alternative to traditional, combustible cigarettes. The unintended consequence of vaping devices and e-cigarettes, however, is a new generation of vapers—teenagers—becoming addicted to nicotine. "In just one year, from 2017 to 2018, the number of high school students using e-cigarettes...
Several states have enacted a ban on sales of vaping products amid more than 800 reports of lung injuries nationwide Up until a month ago, it sometimes seemed like everybody vaped, from international celebrities to local teens. Now, it can feel as if everybody is trying to quit. Amid reports of at least 805 cases...
It’s 11 a.m. on a Saturday and students from Cherry Hill East and Triton High School gather for a football game. A clique of about 10 sophomores mingle in the stands making typical high school banter: who was seen holding hands at the mall Friday, whose mom can pick them up, and where...
In Alabama, a school removed the doors from bathroom stalls to stop students from sneaking inside to vape. In Colorado, a school decided to forfeit a volleyball game after finding “widespread vaping” and other infractions by the team. And in Pennsylvania, at a school where administrators have tried installing sensors to detect vaping...
A Newburyport mother says her son’s vaping addiction got so bad, he was diagnosed with a restrictive lung condition. Kristin Beauparlant’s son was the captain of the Newburyport hockey team, until he was benched in his senior year once he was caught smoking his Juul, a popular electronic cigarette, in school. “He’d be skating...
An outbreak of a deadly vaping-related lung disease has sickened 530 people — mostly young men — and killed seven, federal health officials said Thursday, adding that investigators still haven’t found a cause. The number of people who have fallen sick so far has dramatically risen from 380 patients identified last week, officials from...
Preliminary figures from a national survey show that the prevalence of e-cigarette use among minors has doubled from 2017 through this year, despite national campaigns warning of the dangers. The rate of vaping among teenagers continued to rise sharply this year, federal health officials said, suggesting that campaigns to curb e-cigarette use among minors...
Sen. Dick Durbin is calling on the Food and Drug Administration to swiftly and strictly regulate the vaping industry, comparing it to Big Tobacco preying on youth. “It looks so innocent, doesn’t it?” Durbin said, holding up a USB-flash-drive-sized e-cigarette. “It is a deadly device.” Durbin, D-Ill., addressed reporters Monday following his letter late last...
Along with school safety, parents now have to worry about another real danger — teen vaping, nicotine addiction and the resulting health problems. Florida teens are among those across the country who have become addicted to nicotine through electronic cigarettes and are experiencing serious health issues as a result. On Friday, U.S. health officials put...