Jimmy McGregorAmerican Politics Are state and local governments correct in banning flavored e-cigarettes for advertising to children or did the e-cigarette industry do its due diligence in preventing the teen vaping epidemic? To preface this, Juul is one of the most common vaping instruments used in the US today and is valued at 38 billion dollars. Juul is an alternative to traditional cigarettes and doesn’t have the harmful tar that is known for causing cancer, but instead vaporizes a nicotine concentrate that has proven to be easier on the lungs. The idea behind Juul and other vapes was to help cigarette smokers break their addiction with an alternative that is not as bad for you. Vapes still contain nicotine which is known to be an addictive substance but is not known to cause cancer, however, there are still harmful aspects to inhaling hot vapor. Today, Juul is being accredited with causing a new wave of nicotine users among America’s youth and as many as 1 in 5 youths have seen a Juul being used in school. Scott Gottlieb, the Commissioner of the FDA, declared youth vaping an "epidemic" and said he would declare a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes if those companies did not prove they were doing enough to keep them out of the hands of minors. Since then Juul has banned the selling of their flavored pods to all brick and mortar shops to ensure that people buying their products were the proper age. Since then there has been 180 state and localities that have legally banned or cracked down on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes juices. (4) Have Juul and other e-cigarette companies been responsible for an e-cigarette epidemic? Teen vaping is actually down in recent years from 24.1% of teens using in the past 30 days in 2015 to 20.8% in 2017 according to the CDC. (3) While these numbers are high, the use of cigarettes over the past 25 years have decreased, peaking at around 25% of high schoolers having used cigarettes in the past 30 days in 1995. (1) It would appear that teen smoking is staying at around a similar rate, however the products used are changing. So was Juul right in removing their vape flavors from the market. It would appear that teens are switching to a safer alternative that’s trendier.
While teen smoking is a serious issue there have been allegations made that Juul has been marketing specifically to children through social media. Juul recently has deleted many of their social media posts that allegedly appealed to younger crowds after gaining the attention of the FDA. In late 2018 the FDA conducted a surprise inspection on Juul’s headquarters in San Francisco seizing over 1000 documents that were related to Juul advertising to minors. While this number seems staggering the CEO of Juul stated that they had already given the FDA 50,000 documents for their inquiry into the teen smoking epidemic. In even more recent news, the CDC Director has been pressured to resign for being invested in big tobacco. This raises the question, was the government cracking down on Juul to prevent teens from using nicotine, an already common occurrence, or was the government being directed by the lobbying of big tobacco companies like Altria? Since the inspection and public callout of Juul by the Stocks of some of the world largest tobacco companies have seen a bump. Allegations have also been made that the CDC Director called out big tobacco at their own behest to encourage a sense of rebelliousness in underage smokers by making the product look “cooler.” There is also a correlation between smoking and using e-cigarettes. A study by The Truth Initiative found that roughly 60% of e-cigarette users also used smoked cigarettes. (6) With that being said, there is also a correlation between quitting smoking and using vaping products. Those who use vaping as an alternative to smoking cigarettes have seen a higher success rate than those who have used alternatives like nicotine gum or the patch. Recent Election Results: Scott Gottlieb was nominated as director of the FDA by president trump and has made it one of his main goals to end the teen vaping epidemic. He originally proposed the ban on all flavored e-cigarettes and was head of the FDA when the surprise inspection happened at Juul headquarters. Since then there has also been a wave of state and local governments putting restrictions on the use and flavoring e-cigarettes. In the 2018 midterm elections indoor vaping was banned in the state of Florida and the state of Montana narrowly shot down a law increasing the price of nicotine products. Massachusetts has seen heavy bans and restriction on vaping, which has been passed in 140 localities across the state. California has the second most regulation on e-cigarettes with flavor bans and restriction in 25 localities. There is also a recently implemented plan to used one’s ID when purchasing a pack of flavored e-cigarettes to prevent the spread of vaping to teens. This would cut off anyone who is of age supplying e-cigarette pods to minors by being able to hold them accountable if the minor is caught. 1. https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-development/substance-use/drugs/tobacco/trends/index.html 2. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/09/juul-to-stop-selling-mango-other-e-cigarette-flavors-in-stores.html 3. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm 4. https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0398.pdf 5. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/health/juul-ecigarettes-fda-raid.html 6. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-vaping-help-you-quit-smoking-2019022716086
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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