Juul Labs Inc. has tapped Teresa Sebastian, an executive with financial and compliance expertise, to join its board as the company seeks to reset its business and diversify its ranks. Sebastian is chief executive officer of The Dominion Asset Group, an early-stage investment group focused on revitalizing urban areas. She will serve as an...
Around Thanksgiving 2019, two months after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that banned sales of flavored vaping products in New York, Taobi Silva thought he’d give the vape business another shot. Rob Ermolovich, the owner of a shop called Fluid Vapor and a local e-liquid manufacturing business, had given Silva a call,...
Cartoon imaging remains common in social media promotions of vaping liquids, even as use of the products has exploded among teens and young adults, new research finds. An investigation of 1,936 Instagram posts promoting e-liquid vaping products found that 1,608 (83.1%) were promotional, 142 (7.3%) included one or more cartoon images, and 44 (2.3%)...
Attorney General Letitia James has accused three online companies of violating the state’s new laws banning the sale of vaping products through mail order and selling products with flavors, including cotton candy, pineapple mist and green apple, to youths. A law effective July 1 makes it illegal to sell vaping products through the mail....
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent warning lettersTrusted Source to 10 companies about selling flavored, disposable e-cigarettes that especially appeal to young people without having proper approval. “Despite suspending in-person activities — such as retail compliance checks and vape shop inspections — due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our enforcement against unauthorized e-cigarettes...
Attorney General Maura Healey is suing an online e-cigarette company called “Puff Bar” for selling disposable flavored tobacco products in Massachusetts in violation of state law, her office on Thursday. The complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Wednesday, alleges that Puff Bar and Cool Clouds Distribution, Inc. continued advertising and selling disposable flavored...
Juul Labs Inc. launched an aggressive legal campaign to halt what it calls a “seemingly endless stream” of black market cartridges for its e-cigarettes. The vaping company filed a patent-infringement complaint at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, naming more than four dozen companies it says are importing copycat cartridges for the e-cigarettes....
A shadowy e-cigarette company that has reaped millions of dollars by exploiting a loophole to sell kid-friendly, flavored nicotine products says it is suspending sales in the U.S following revelations about its owners. Puff Bar, a California-based marketer of disposable e-cigarettes, announced the sales suspension Monday on its website. In a phone call with...
E-cigarettes are highly addictive nicotine products with unclear health impacts, particularly on young people. Instagram is a visual social media platform which is wildly popular, particularly with young people. Researchers interested in public health at Aalto university in Finland studied how vaping is represented on the platform. By using artificial intelligence, they were...
In recent months, mystery has surrounded the ownership of a controversial e-cigarette company that has reaped millions of dollars in sales of flavored, kid-friendly nicotine products by exploiting a loophole in federal regulations. The company, Puff Bar, has even reveled in the mystery, saying on its website, “But who makes Puff Bar? Everyone wants...
Trust might not be a word commonly associated with one of the most controversial companies in America. Still, it’s a word used often by K.C. Crosthwaite, CEO of embattled e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. Crosthwaite took the helm of Juul last September when the company was at the center of a public-health crisis that...
Hawaii is suing the nation’s largest e-cigarette maker JUUL Labs and Altria Group, its largest shareholder and parent company of Philip Morris, saying the companies used misleading marketing to entice young customers. “In marketing their e-cigarettes to Hawaii’s children, these companies ripped pages directly out of the tobacco-company playbook and resurrected Joe Camel for...
Juul Labs Inc., the U.S.-based e-cigarette maker that’s fighting a global backlash against vaping, is considering entry into the tightly regulated Japanese market. Haruhiko Hirate, formerly a corporate officer at Tokyo-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., was hired to lead the effort, Juul said Tuesday in a statement. He was named representative director and chairman of...
Canadian provinces that allow retail displays promoting e-cigarettes had nearly three times the teen vaping rate, a new study found. Until May 2018, e-cigarettes weren't widely available in Canada and it was illegal to advertise those containing nicotine. When the law changed, Quebec and Manitoba adopted their own restrictions, including bans on retail displays...
The goal of the legal action is to prevent the companies from using cartoons in ads for products that contain nicotine. Attorney General Ashley Moody has taken legal action against vaping companies that market to minors and fail to verify the age of their customers. “I am appalled at the marketing of these addictive products...
The e-cigarette company, which has quickly eclipsed Juul, has advertised its products as a break from “parental texts and WFH stress.” House lawmakers asked the Food and Drug Administration this week to ban Puff Bar, the fast-growing e-cigarette that has quickly replaced Juul as the vape of choice among young people. The disposable devices come...
Vaping is most heavily concentrated in U.S. schools with a higher proportion of white students, schools in the South and West, and schools where more students smoke cigarettes, a new University of Michigan study shows. Overall, more than one in 10 American middle and high school students report having used e-cigarettes within the last...
JUUL is America’s most popular e-cigarette by a wide margin, and it’s well known throughout the world – even in regions where it isn’t officially available yet. For the first several years of its existence, however, it wasn’t possible to buy JUUL here in the United Kingdom. At the time, JUUL was available...
Tobacco and e-cigarette companies are exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to advertise their harmful and addictive products on social media, undermine minimum age purchase restrictions meant to protect youth and make unproven and illegal health claims, according to new analysis published by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The analysis includes tactics from big tobacco companies,...
They know it's addictive. They know it's linked to dangerous and even fatal lung diseases. And they know it delivers far more nicotine than the cigarettes it's supposed to replace. But the social aspects of vaping drives young people to use Juul and other e-cigarettes, according to nearly two-thirds of teens and young adults...
Three Maryland counties have filed lawsuits against the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc., arguing the company intentionally marketed its products to underage customers and contributed to a youth vaping epidemic, court documents detail. Howard, Anne Arundel and Garrett counties filed separate federal lawsuits in April, The Baltimore Sun reported. They joined Montgomery County and...
The FDA warned 10 companies to pull products off the market because they are designed to help teenagers hide vaping from adults. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cracking down on products that help teenagers vape without getting caught because they look exactly like candy, smartwatches, video games, or hoodies. “The public should...
A Maryland federal judge on Friday said that he would grant a 120-day extension to the deadline for e-cigarette regulatory applications in light of the novel coronavirus outbreak that has strained U.S. Food and Drug Administration resources and disrupted supply chains. Last week, the FDA asked the Fourth Circuit to extend the current May...
Doctors have criticised the organisation responsible for protecting the nation’s health over its work with a vaping pressure group that is itself linked to the world’s largest multinational tobacco company. Public Health England paid £40,000 for a series of YouTube videos co-produced by the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) and held numerous meetings with the...
The YouTube video shows two young men sitting in front of a computer screen, enthralled by what they’re watching and pausing, periodically, to marvel at it. They stare as a demonlike character — it resembles something from the costumed metal band Gwar — screams and tries to shred on its guitar. The backdrop...
Nicotine pods used for vaping need clearer labels to help young people understand what they are inhaling, a Stanford study concludes. Young adults don’t know what’s in the products they vape and often don’t know what brand of vaping products they use, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School...
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...
The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on companies that continue to sell flavored, cartridge-based vaping products in violation of the agency’s new policy. The policy took effect in February. It prioritizes enforcement actions against cartridge-based vaping products in flavors other than tobacco and menthol. The FDA sent out 22 warning letters to companies that...
Experts are worried about the videos reaching a younger audience As Youtube continues to fight against the spread of misinformation, a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania explored how tobacco-related videos continue to make their rounds around the popular video streaming service. The researchers explained that viewers continue to see videos...
The latest trend of using a vape has gradually replaced cigarettes. Despite it is marketed and considered as a “safe” alternate of cigarettes, it is not. Last year reported a number of vape related injuries especially in middle and high school students who eventually got addicted to it. It led to the health...
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...
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Wednesday announced a lawsuit against the company she blames for starting the youth vaping epidemic. Healey's office filed a lawsuit against electronic cigarette manufacturer JUUL in Massachusetts Superior Court after an investigation into the company's sales and procedures that began in 2018. "JUUL bears responsibility for the millions of...
Undercover teens working with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office routinely find stores selling tobacco and vape products to minors, including repeat violators. Grocery stores, convenience stores and tobacco shops that are supposed to be gatekeepers of nicotine products are instead helping to usher in a teen vaping crisis. The 12 News I-Team analyzed state and...
Internal documents obtained by the Massachusetts attorney general as part of a new lawsuit are the clearest indication yet that the e-cigarette giant aimed its early advertising at young people who've never smoked. Juul has long said that its nicotine vaping devices are meant for adult smokers, not adolescents. But internal company documents show...
Pennsylvania has joined a growing list of states suing leading e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, whose sleek vape pens and cartridges in fruit, dessert, and candy flavors have been blamed for contributing to a sharp rise in e-cigarette use among teenagers and adolescents. The lawsuit, filed Monday by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, alleges that...
New Congressional documents reveal that e-cigarette maker Juul Labs pitched its products to at least eight Native American tribes, in a move tribal health advocates say is as disturbing as it is expected. “I always suspected that the targeting of tribes was more pervasive than we knew,” says Rae O’Leary, a public health analyst...
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....
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...
Despite efforts from health officials to raise awareness of the potential harms of vaping among young people, social media users are being exposed to a growing amount of pro e-cigarette content. That's according to researchers. Following a rise in school children saying they have used e-cigarettes—despite the harms nicotine can pose to the developing...
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 San Diego Unified School District is suing e-cigarette company JUUL, claiming its product “disrupts the education and learning environment across the district.” The lawsuit follows similar suits filed by school districts in Los Angeles, Glendale, Compton and Anaheim. The district is seeking an injunction and abatement to “stop the e-cigarette epidemic” which the district...
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Tuesday his office is suing two companies that manufacture vaping products, Juul and Eonsmoke. “We allege that they have contributed to the vaping epidemic that’s infiltrated our schools and are creating addiction problems for youth throughout the state,” he said at a press conference. Brnovich said the companies enticed...
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...
A University of Oregon student has sued two vape companies in class action lawsuit, saying he suffered a seizure after using the products and that the companies were negligent in their marketing. The Oregon Daily Emerald first reported that Kewmarse Imani has sued Juul and Altria, another vape company. The complaint alleges that both...
“If Instagram doesn’t allow people to promote vape, there will be a lot of people losing their jobs, including me,” an influencer who goes by Valerie Wee tells me over email. Her account is filled with vape tricks, vaporizer giveaways, and glowing product reviews. Last week, Instagram said it would be cracking down on...
A Mississippi teen says in a lawsuit he became addicted to nicotine through vaping and it's a struggle to function without it. The 18-year-old, listed in court documents as Braa Issa, said he began using JUUL electronic cigarettes in 2018. The court documents didn't indicate where the teen is from in Missisisppi. Issa is suing...
While many recent studies are exploring why vaping has caused more than 2,409 individuals to experience a severe lung injury called EVALI, researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are looking into what motivated them to vape in the first place. The study, published in the British Medical Journal Thursday, specifically zeroed in on why three sexual...
Get on your computer, open up YouTube in a browser, type in the word JUUL and you can find an endless stream of videos like this one featuring a pair of young women welcoming their online audience with a “Hi guys!” before they show how they “make parties a little more fun.” In the...
Illinois has become the latest state to sue the country’s biggest e-cigarette maker, alleging in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Juul Labs Inc., used deceptive marketing practices to entice minors and misrepresented the amount of nicotine in its products. State Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the company designed its products to lure teens, making...
After his vaping addiction led to a collapsed lung, a Miami Beach Senior High School graduate quit using his e-cigarette and focused his attention on helping other young people kick the habit. Now he’s hoping his hometown leaders will collaborate with him to develop a holistic nicotine-prevention program in public schools in Miami Beach. Chance...
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....
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 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...
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...
President Donald Trump said on Friday his administration would propose a minimum age of 21 for the purchase of e-cigarette products. The president made the comment during a robust "listening" session at the White House with vaping industry executives, public health advocates, as well as some members of Congress and the Administration. Trump, who earlier expressed support for a ban on non-tobacco flavored...
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...
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...
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...
Everything seemed ready to go: President Trump’s ban on most flavored e-cigarettes had been cleared by federal regulators. Officials were poised to announce they would order candy, fruit and mint flavors off the market within 30 days — a step the president had promised almost two months earlier to quell a youth vaping epidemic that...
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...