Juul Forced Educators To Divert Money, Resources To Fighting Vaping Crisis, School Districts Accuse In New Lawsuit
The school districts in Missouri, Kansas and New York say Juul explicitly marketed its products to youths, leaving schools to shoulder the costs of stopping students from vaping, disciplining them when they break school rules and providing support services when they become addicted. While Juul is facing court challenges by counties and states, this suit is believed to be the first brought by school districts. In other news on the epidemic: e-cigarettes and fires on planes, the search for lung diseases and vaping link, the first lady speaks out, Walgreens and Kroger to stop selling e-cigarettes and more.
The New York Times:
Juul Is Sued By School Districts That Say Vaping Is A Dangerous Drain On Their Resources
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 of endangering students and forcing educators to divert time and money to fight an epidemic of nicotine addiction. The school systems in St. Charles, Mo., Olathe, Kan., and on Long Island were believed to be the first in the United States to sue Juul, which dominates the e-cigarette market with devices that look like thumb drives and that have become wildly popular with American teenagers. (Hassan, 10/7)
Reuters:
Two School Districts Sue Juul Over Vaping 'Epidemic'
As a result of "youth-targeted product design and marketing, and years of misstatements and omissions regarding its products, Juul succeeded in addicting a generation of youth to nicotine," the St. Charles district said in its lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in St. Louis. The Olathe district, which sued Juul in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, similarly accused the company of creating a nationwide "epidemic of vaping" and said it had been "forced to expend significant resources combating this public nuisance." (Pierson, 10/7)
KCUR:
Olathe School District Says Leading E-Cigarette Maker Addicted A Generation Of Youth To Nicotine
The Olathe School District on Monday filed suit against the nation’s leading maker of e-cigarettes, charging it deliberately markets its products to school-age children and misleads them about their dangers. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, says that Juul Labs Inc. has “succeeded in addicting a generation of youth to nicotine” by adopting the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry. (Margolies, 10/7)
Bloomberg:
Juul Accused By School Districts of Creating Vaping ‘Nuisance’
Juul is a defendant in almost a dozen federal-court suits consolidated in San Francisco for pre-trial information exchanges. Some of those complaints also name Altria as a defendant. The company also faces more than 40 suits in state courts. Some plaintiffs include parents claiming their children have become nicotine addicts as a result of using e-cigarettes. Altria spokesman Steven Callahan says those suits are “meritless” and that the conduct alleged in them occurred before it had an economic interest in Juul. (Kary and Feeley, 10/7)
The Washington Post:
E-Cigarettes Add To Fire Dangers On Planes, And FAA Has Little Direction
When an e-cigarette battery started smoldering on a flight to Los Angeles in July 2017, a SkyWest flight attendant threw it into an ice bucket before shoving it into a fire containment bag. In Denver, two months later, a carry-on bag with four vaping batteries “caught fire on the boarding bridge,” and firefighters were called to put it out, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In March, Southwest Airlines employees had to pull a smoking suitcase containing e-cigarette batteries from a plane’s cargo hold in San Diego. Adjacent bags were damaged, as was the plane, which was temporarily taken out of service, according to the FAA. (Laris, 10/7)
Cincinnati Enquirer:
U.S. Lab Seeking Possible Links Between Vaping And Lung Disease Is In Cincinnati
The search for answers to the mysterious lung disease apparently related to vaping goes through a low-slung building in an industrial park in a northern Cincinnati neighborhood. The Forensic Chemistry Center in Cincinnati operates under the authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As a result, it’s a secretive place, and FDA officials declined repeated requests to tour the lab or speak with its leadership. An agency spokeswoman answered questions that The Enquirer submitted by email. In the vaping investigation, the laboratory has received more than 400 samples of vaping products from 18 states, “and those numbers continue to increase,” the FDA said. (Saker, 10/7)
Politico Pro:
Scientists Urge FDA To Be Tough On Vaping
The evidence that vaping is safer than smoking is so thin that FDA officials preparing to regulate the products don't even know whether it makes sense for people to switch. Yet millions of youths are already hooked on e-cigarettes, despite initial evidence suggesting they could cause long-term lung problems or even cancer. (Allen, 10/7)
Reuters:
Democrat Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Cap Nicotine Content In Vapes
A U.S. lawmaker on Monday introduced a bill that seeks to regulate e-cigarette makers by capping the amount of nicotine in the vapes they manufacture to make them less addictive. The bill, introduced by Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, is the latest effort by lawmakers to clamp down on e-cigarette use, given a spike in underage vaping. (10/7)
The Associated Press:
First Lady Calls For End Of E-Cigarette Marketing To Youth
Melania Trump said Monday that companies "must stop" marketing e-cigarettes to children, saying they are addictive and dangerous. Marketing tobacco products to kids is already prohibited in the United States, and Juul Labs Inc., the nation's largest maker of electronic cigarettes, has said it will cease advertising them in the U.S. Still, some believe Juul's early online marketing of e-cigarettes contributed to an explosion in vaping among youth. (Superville, 10/7)
The Hill:
First Lady Calls For End Of Marketing E-Cigarettes To Youth
"It is important to me that we all work to educate children and families about the dangers associated with this habit," she said. "Marketing this addictive product to children must stop." Melania Trump was one of the driving forces behind President Trump's crackdown on flavored vaping products. (Weixel, 10/7)
The Associated Press:
Kroger, Walgreens To Stop Selling E-Cigarettes In US
Two major retailers say they will no longer sell e-cigarettes in the U.S. amid mounting health questions surrounding vaping. Supermarket chain Kroger and drugstore chain Walgreens announced Monday they would discontinue sales of e-cigarettes at their stores nationwide, citing an uncertain regulatory environment. (10/7)
USA Today:
Walgreens, Kroger End E-Cigarette Sales As Vaping Crisis Continues
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 is also reflective of developing regulations in a growing number of states and municipalities," Walgreens said in a statement. Caruso said Walgreens had not determined a timeline for the phaseout, but "we plan to exit in an orderly manner." (Bomey, 10/7)
Los Angeles Times:
Mice Who ‘Vaped’ Nicotine For A Year Had Big Spike In Tumor Growth
New research in mice suggests that long-term exposure to vaping liquids that contain nicotine greatly increases the risk of cancer. After breathing in the vapor for 20 hours a week for more than a year, 22.5% of the mice had cancerous tumors in the lining of the lungs, and 57.5% developed growths in their bladder tissue that can be precursors to cancer. Meanwhile, only 5.6% of mice in a control group that breathed only filtered air wound up with lung tumors, and none of them had growths in their bladders. (Baumgaertner, 10/7)
CNBC:
E-Cigarettes Cause Lung Cancer In Mice, Finds First Study Tying Vaping To Cancer
“It’s foreseeable that if you smoke e-cigarettes, all kinds of disease comes out” over time, Moon-Shong Tang, the study’s lead researcher, said in an interview. “Long term, some cancer will come out, probably. E-cigarettes are bad news.” How carcinogenic e-cigarette use is for humans “may not be known for a decade to come,” but the study is the first to definitively link vaping nicotine to cancer. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Bursztynsky, 10/7)
Meanwhile, in the states —
The Wall Street Journal:
Majority Of New Yorkers Support Ban On Sale Of E-Cigarettes
New Yorkers think the use of e-cigarettes is a serious public health problem and support a ban on flavored e-cigarette products, according to a poll released Monday. The Siena College Research Institute found that 78% of the 589 New Yorkers surveyed in late September believe that vaping is a somewhat serious or very serious public health problem. Sixty-one percent of those polled supported a temporary ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarette and vaping products, while 52% said they supported banning the sale of all e-cigarettes and vaping devices in New York. (West, 10/7)
Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
Attorney General Tackles Youth Vaping, Warns Retailers
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge launched an offensive against youth vaping on Monday -- the same day researchers in New York published the first study linking e-cigarette vapor to cancer in mice. The Republican attorney general issued an "enforcement advisory," warning online retailers that they stand to be fined up to $10,000 under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for selling or shipping e-cigarette products to minors. (Field, 10/8)
New Hampshire Union Leader:
NH Reports First Case Of Vaping-Related Lung Injury
A Sullivan County adult is the first person in New Hampshire to suffer a “lung injury” from vaping, state health officials reported on Monday. The unnamed patient had vaped nicotine products and was hospitalized at one point with symptoms and chest imaging that showed unspecified lung injury, the state Department of Health and Human Services said. The person was later discharged from the hospital. (10/7)
Fresno Bee:
Death Due To Vaping In Kings County, California
A person has died in Kings County due to vaping, the county department of public health reported Monday. The person was not identified. It’s the second death related to the use of electronic cigarettes in the region. Last month, a resident in Tulare County died of similar complications. (Tehee, 10/7)
California Healthline:
Vapers Accuse Officials Of Overreach As Investigation Into Deadly Lung Illness Lags
On Sept. 16, Tulare County in California announced the nation’s seventh death from vaping-related illness. Its advisory warned about “the dangerous effects of using electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes.” Like so many of the official warnings coming out around the country, it lacked details about the specific products involved in the vaping death. But by the time of the announcement, the family of the man who died had been in touch with Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, which advocates for vaping products. (Barry-Jester and Gold, 10/7)
