The Food and Drug Administration said today it will ban the sale of Juul e-cigarettes, saying that Juul played an outside role in the increase in youth vaping. Critics say that Juul used aggressive marketing tactics to get more teenagers to vape. Public health experts say e-cigarettes are unsafe for teens, children and young adults. These products contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance. Research also suggests that exposure to nicotine during adolescence may lead to persistent behavioral problems, higher rates of anxiety and impulse control issues.
“Vaping puts teens and youth at risk of a number of health problems and the vaping industry has exploited the vulnerability of this population. The industry has used several tactics out of the old tobacco play-book including fighting regulation, contesting evidence, seeding doubt, marketing strategies, including social media marketing and advertising, and more,” Adnan Hyder, the Director of the George Washington University Center on Commercial Determinants of Health and Senior Associate Dean for Research at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, said. “I welcome this decision by the FDA. I hope it means more such decisions to curb and regulate nicotine and tobacco products are on the horizon.”
Nino Paichadze, Associate Director of the Center and expert on commercial determinants of health adds, “E-cigarettes have been a rapidly emerging and diversified product class that particularly appeal to adolescents and youth. In 2021, more than 2 million U.S. middle and high-school students reported current use of e-cigarettes . JUUL is just one of many e-cigarettes that contain high levels of nicotine that pose harm to the adolescent brain and lead to myriad adverse health conditions. The company has capitalized on adolescent’s innocence and desire for independence and has been strategically marketing their products as a trendy activity. Since adolescence and youth are critical stages of human development and given the disturbing statistics of e-cigarette use among American youth, the FDA decision is both timely and necessary. This is one big win for public health today!”
