If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its way, one of the largest electronic cigarette retailers in the country may be forced out of business. Last Thursday, the FDA began sending letters to retailers ordering them to remove all Juul products from their shelves. The following day, a federal appeals court temporarily suspended the FDA's order, allowing Juul to continue selling its products while the court hears arguments from both sides.
The FDA is alleging that Juul has not provided "sufficient evidence regarding the toxicological characteristics of their products to demonstrate that their marketing is appropriate for protecting public health." In response, Juul released a statement calling the FDA's ban "arbitrary and capricious.
Is Juuling on the way out?
This week, health reporter for Time, Jamie Ducharme argued that the ban on Juul may not be the public health victory that people have imagined, and pointed out that "adult smokers also use Juul for smoking cessation - last week's decision was not a victory for them.
Tim Andrews from the US Tax Reform Organization also wrote in the Washington Post that taking Juul products off the market "will cut off a proven method that helps millions of smokers quit, leading to more smoking and more deaths." As evidence, Andrews cited comments "consistently finding e-cigarettes two to six times more effective than other cessation devices" and a study by Georgetown University Medical Center, which estimated that e-cigarettes could save the lives of up to 6.6 million Americans who would live at least 10 years longer.
Jonathan Foulds, a professor of public health sciences at Pennsylvania State University, agrees with this sentiment, stating on Twitter that "banning smoking from these life-saving exits because of 'potentially harmful chemicals' that may exude from some pods is a bit like locking the fire escape door because the steps might be slippery.
What's worse, Zule or cigars?
In his article for the Washington Post, Tim Andrews cited a "meta-analysis" of scientific research on e-cigarettes, commissioned by the UK government and "replicated by external medical institutions," which concluded that e-cigarettes are "95% safer than combustible tobacco." Bloomberg reporters Fiona Rutherford and Robert Langreth acknowledged that "some evidence suggests that e-cigarettes are a safer option than smoking," but claim that "there is not enough long-term data to draw a definitive conclusion." It is worth noting that Michael Bloomberg is a major funder of the campaign to ban flavored e-cigarette products.
From April 2019 to February 2020, the US experienced an outbreak of lung injuries related to the use of electronic cigarettes or vaping products, known as EVALI, resulting in 2,807 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. Of note, 82% of hospitalized patients reported using marijuana while only 14% reported nicotine use alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found that many of the deaths or hospitalizations were linked to the use of unregulated black-market THC products in their vaping devices. In comparison, smoking is estimated to cause 480,000 deaths per year in the US.
However, electronic cigarettes may not be the healthy alternative that some supporters claim. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine notes that electronic cigarettes have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a smoking cessation device, and "recent research has found that the majority of people who intended to use electronic cigarettes to quit nicotine habit ended up continuing to use both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
Just think about the children!
In 2018, 30% of American high school students "reported having tried nicotine at least once in the past year," according to a cover story by Jamie Ducharme in TIME magazine in 2019. This is the largest increase in substance use in at least 44 years. The 2018 report by the National Academy of Sciences also showed that children who use e-cigarettes are more likely to try traditional cigarettes. Although the FDA's decision did not specifically address the relationship between Juul and youth e-cigarette use, as reported by the New York Times, "public health experts and legislators continue to express concern about the addition of nicotine to some e-cigarettes that remain on the market, including brands like PuffBar that offer fruit flavors that are attractive to young people.
However, the theory still remains debatable. Writing for a conservative independent women's forum, Lindsey Stroud argues that Juul does not encourage children to smoke. According to a public opinion survey, she wrote, "From 2019 to 2021, the usage of Juul products among 12th-grade students decreased by 46.9% in the past 30 days. Additionally, in 10th-grade students, the number of people using JUUL decreased by 75.3% during that time." The editorial board of The New York Daily News agreed, writing that Juul "has largely lost favor with teenage consumers" in recent years. However, all of this may just be a passing trend, like water vapor evaporating in the wind.
Source: The Week
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