Juul Labs’ internal documents and statements by its founders reveal the e-cigarette manufacturer lifted trade secrets from Big Tobacco to market its highly addictive vaping products to youths as young as 8. The company’s deliberate marketing plan proved successful, doubling the size of the U.S. vaping market and dominating competitors in just three...
A coalition of 39 states will look into the marketing and sales of vaping products by Juul Labs, including whether the company targeted youths and made misleading claims about nicotine content in its devices, officials announced Tuesday. Attorneys general from Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Texas said they will lead the multi-state investigation into...
Puff Bars were embraced by minors thanks to a gap in the U.S. flavor ban, but now their maker says it’s halting sales. On a sunny Friday afternoon in Los Angeles’s Skid Row, two men climbed through a gap in a half-shuttered storefront across the street from a sidewalk homeless encampment. The unassuming building on...
Dr. Lynn D’Andrea was standing in a small consultation room on one of the upper floors of the Children’s Wisconsin hospital this past Fourth of July weekend when a younger colleague on the pulmonary team, Dr. Brian J. Carroll, told her she needed to see a teenager who was having severe difficulty breathing....
The policy allows mint, dessert and fruit flavors to continue to be sold in disposable e-cigarettes, prompting many teens to switch from Juul to those devices. The Food and Drug Administration is banning most flavored e-cigarettes, but that isn’t keeping banana ice, sour gummy or cool mint out of the hands of McCracken County...
Stephen Hahn, the new head of the Food and Drug Administration, defended the Trump administration’s impending partial e-cigarette ban, which has been sharply criticized by Democratic lawmakers and public health groups as too weak. But he also vowed to take tougher steps if needed to reduce teen vaping. The administration’s vaping plan, which will...
Millions of Americans are vaping, and some are getting sick. Since June 2019, 2,711 have been hospitalized and 60 have died due to EVALI (e-cigarette-associated lung injury), the devastating lung disease linked to e-cigarettes. Five million users are middle and high school students. Some are as young as 11, although it’s illegal to sell...
Customers of Dallas vape shops looking for Mango Juul cartridges are finding empty shelves and heavy markups. Instead, they’re turning to Puff Bars, a nearly identical product that skirts the new rules by fusing the liquid-filled cartridge to the pen-sized stem. Users consume the liquid — which can last from a few days to...
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will ban all flavors of cartridge-based e-cigarettes, other than tobacco and menthol. An analyst at Bernstein Research thinks a big winner will be Juul Labs, which is 35% owned by Altria Group. “As we work to combat the troubling epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, the enforcement...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
As health concerns over vaping continue to grow amid skyrocketing use by young people, mall food court giant Cinnabon is suing a Las Vegas-based company for using its sticky-sweet brand name on some vape products. Cinnabon, famous for its cinnamon rolls often sold in mall food courts across America, filed a federal lawsuit in...
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...
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,...
Scientists don't know much yet about the long-term effects of "vape juice," the liquid used in e-cigarettes and vaporizers. But researchers analyzing the liquid and the vapor produced when it's heated say some kinds of e-liquids are reacting to form irritating chemicals called acetals while they're sitting on shelves. More than 3 million young...
Your favorite vape flavor may be more harmful than the nicotine itself. Using stem cells to investigate the impact of e-liquids on cardiovascular disease, a new study has revealed the harmful effects of flavored e-cigarette liquids and e-cigarette use. The most toxic flavors: cinnamon and menthol. Researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine...
TWO popular flavours of e-liquid may be putting vapers at significant risk of deadly heart attack or stroke, experts are warning. Cinnamon and menthol have been found to be "particularly harmful" to heart health. Scientists have found that when blood vessel cells are exposed to e-liquid, they start to exhibit "significantly increased levels" of DNA...
Your lungs could be the ones to suffer. When they first came on the market, industry advocates originally touted vapes—electronic nicotine delivery systems such as a JUUL—as a smoking cessation aid. In the time since, they’ve exploded in popularity among young people, leading to worries that brands like JUUL are contributing to a new...
Rite Aid said it would remove e-cigarette and vaping products from stores over the next 90 days; stores will continue to sell regular cigarettes Rite Aid Corp. is halting the sale of e-cigarettes in its drugstores, even as it continues to sell traditional cigarettes, taking a different stance on tobacco products than its two...
Young people across the country gathered today to take a stand against tobacco. In Hawaii, youth from almost every island showed up to the State Capitol to show their support for Senate Bill 1009, which would ban flavored tobacco in Hawaii. Dozens of middle school and high school students sported bright pink shirts and...
Outgoing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb released the agency’s much-anticipated policy restricting e-cigarette sales on Wednesday — designed to tighten sales and eventually remove from the market many of the fruity flavors he’s blamed on fueling “epidemic” levels of teen use. “We think flavored products represent greater risk to youth appeal, so...
"We wanted to know what they're vaping." As much as concerned adults like to blame fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes, it’s hard to pin down what drives teens to vape in record numbers. Is it really the sweet-smelling vapor that makes e-cigarettes so irresistible? A study published Tuesday in Public Health Reports goes a long...
Two chemicals widely used to flavor electronic cigarettes may be impairing the function of cilia in the human airway, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Cilia are antennae-like protuberances that are present on 50-75% of the cells that line human airways. They play a key role...
Agency targets e-cigarettes, flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday launched a multipronged attack on the rising underage use of tobacco products, imposing sales restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes and announcing plans to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. The FDA says it will limit sales of many flavored e-cigarettes to...
The mixture of flavorants and propylene glycol (PG) in electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) leads to the formation of acetals that have been shown to activate irritation receptors, predisposing users to the same potential dangers as using traditional cigarettes, a new study said. Many current smokers, especially the younger generation, have viewed e-cigs as the new...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that all 17 manufacturers, distributors and retailers that were warned by the agency in May, have stopped selling the nicotine-containing e-liquids used in e-cigarettes with labeling or advertising resembling kid-friendly food products, such as juice boxes, candy or cookies that were identified through warning letters...
U.S. health officials are flagging the increasing popularity of flavored e-cigarettes as an emerging public threat. Fruity, sweet and menthol electronic cigarettes started dominating the market over the last few years, making up roughly 56 percent of the industry's sales in 2016, up from 42 percent in 2012, according to a new study from...
Teen vaping is at the tipping point before possible epidemic levels, federal officials and public health advocates agree, but they're feuding over how fast and far to go to rein in the booming electronic cigarette industry. Some of the health groups that sued the Food and Drug Administration for delaying regulation of vape products by four...
Researchers are still in the early stages of figuring out the potential health hazards of associated with certain vaping flavors — as well as the dangers of vaping in general. So it can be tough for e-cig enthusiasts to know just how much damage — if any — they might be doing to...
The wide assortment of flavorings used to spice up your vaping experience could be damaging your cardiovascular system, suggests new research released Thursday. The study, published in the journal of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, found that several common e-cigarette flavorings can directly harm blood vessels. But, as with so many similar studies,...
San Francisco residents overwhelmingly voted to uphold a ban on all flavored tobacco. R.J. Reynolds, the maker of best-selling menthol cigarette brand Newport, poured more than $11.6 million into a campaign to fight the move. Skepticism on e-cigarette flavors has increased as Juul, a sleek e-cigarette, has become popular with teenagers across...
A cinnamon food additive impaired the cilia in human lung cells. A common cinnamon food additive that is widely used to flavor e-cigarettes had harmful effects on human lung cells in a laboratory culture, disrupting the cells’ innate host defense system, scientists report. The compound, called cinnamaldehyde, gives cinnamon its characteristic flavor and smell and...
Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the Food and Drug Administration to fully regulate vapor products, including a call for a ban of fruit and candy e-cigarette flavors. "The FDA needs to be the adult in the room and put an end to these cynical marketing ploys," Schumer said at a news conference. His stance is that...
The e-cigarette industry has garnered billions of consumers with fun flavors - the cherry on top of tantalizing promises that the devices are safer than tobacco. Chocolate Fudge, Berry Splash, and Blueberry Cinnamon-Streusel Muffin are just a few of the options, promoting the experience from harmless to (arguably) delicious. However, a new study by the...
Unfortunately, they're pretty common. Vapers have long claimed that using e-cigarettes is safer than smoking tobacco, and they’re right … mostly. Earlier in January, public health experts weighed in on the issue, saying that, while vaping is indeed safer than smoking, it can increase teens’ risk of smoking cigarettes. But just because vaping is safer...
It’s difficult for researchers to uncover what even goes into different vape juices. In the 1990s, several employees of a Missouri popcorn factory began reporting mysterious symptoms. They were always tired, wheezing, and out of breath. After doctors found scar tissue inside the factory workers’ lungs, they diagnosed the workers with an irreversible lung...
Vaping might be a more healthful alternative to smoking, but this does not mean that it is harmless. This is the takeaway message from a new study, which found that some flavorings added to e-cigarette liquids could be damaging for the heart. The research team identified a number of chemicals used to flavor to...