Juul products.Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty
A new lawsuit is accusing Juul, Labs Inc. of targeting a young audience for its products.
According to multiple outlets includingNBC NewsandCNN, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that alleges the electronic cigarette company bought ad space on websites “highly attractive to children, adolescents in middle school and high school and underage college students” after its launch almost five years ago.
These include strictly schoolwork-focused websites likesocialstudiesforkids.comandcoolmath-games.com, as well as widely known brands aimed at child and teen audiences such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network andSeventeenmagazine, NBC News reports.
The suit claims that the company’s initial ad campaign deliberately sought out models who ended up appearing “inappropriately or unsuitably young” in the ads, described as “New York trendsetters who embody the Juul brandand speak to millennial consumers,” reports CNN.
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Man using electronic cigarette.EVA HAMBACH/AFP via Getty
According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, e-cigarette use (or vaping) is on the rise among youth. From 2018 to 2019, the number of middle- and high-school students who were using e-cigarettes rose from 3.6 million to 5.4 million.
In addition, through mid-January, the CDC reported at least 60 peoplehave died from vaping-related causes, with an additional 2,668 from all 50 states reported hospitalized with significant lung problems related to vaping.
Dr. Janette Nesheiwat,a New York City-based family and emergency medicine physician who has treated many vaping patients, recently told PEOPLE that vaping affects brain development and can have an impact on mood, behavior, thinking, decision-making skills and judgment. The artificial chemicals used in vaping liquids can damage and destroy cells in the lungs, causing inflammation and cell death. Certain flavors of vape cartridges “literally kill bronchial cells,” she said, and have been banned.
Vaping can also cause nicotine toxicity — which can result in seizures, Nesheiwat said — and can even lead teens to become smokers. “Many people who vape will go on to become regular cigarette smokers in six months to a year,” she told PEOPLE. “Smokingis the No. 1 cause of death in this country; it causes more deaths than drugs, guns, car accidents, HIV and alcohol combined.”
Juul products.EVA HAMBACH/AFP via Getty
This past October, Juul announced that they were planning to stop offering several flavors in the U.S. amid the continuing backlash against vaping, saying in a press release that they’llno longer be selling any of their “non-tobacco, non-menthol-based flavors,”which were mango, creme, fruit and cucumber.
Prior to the announcement, the fruity flavors were only available to customers over the age of 21 to purchase on the company’s website.
source: people.com
