There is a craze that’s sweeping high schools, and that is Juuls, the popular e-cigarette. This outbreak has even been covered by different outlets.
Just for those who don’t know, it is a small e-cigarette that’s about the size of a flash drive. It vaporizes nicotine along with other flavors and chemicals to make you feel like you’re smoking, but without the chemicals that are in cigarettes.
That was the plan initially. However, it’s not too good for the lungs and body as well. This may not come as a shock to many, but with Juul, it’s actually harmful to those both young and old.
The New Technology
Educators are struggling to crack down on this for a variety of reasons.
They’re easy to hide for starters. The vapor is easy to hide too, since a lot of kids blow them down their shirts or do it in the bathroom. One school is starting to put smoke detectors in though to find the vapor when it’s exhaled in the bathrooms too.
What does the FDA Think?
As they learn more about this, they’re learning about the risk associated with it. That’s because e-cigarettes are used to help current smokers quiet. While they are healthy when compared to cigarette smoking, when it comes to those that didn’t smoke at all, they don’t help, since they can put you at risk for cancer and even lung diseases too.
The FDA is also cracking down on selling these to younger people, making the age to buy it now 21 years of age. However, not every state is doing this, but even the states that are raising the age are still struggling to keep the kids from getting them since they can buy from online retailers, or even other adults that are willing to sell them to minors.
There are other ways around the restriction of ages too, and many are struggling to stop this.
What do We Think?
Should Juul be liable if they’re sold to people underage.
While on the one side Juul can’t control the actions of minors going online and purchasing these, since kids can get them from the internet due to how easy it is, they also are kind of responsible.
That’s because it may expose them to cancer risks, which means that there might need to be public policy that makes sure that these aren’t sold to kids. While the CDC already said they’re not safe due to the aerosol and other chemicals that link to lung disease, it still must be properly regulated.
Juul also uses higher levels of nicotine than traditional cigarettes do too.
If I were Juul, I would make sure that the products aren’t sold online, since it does put the children at risk, and it’s not worth all of the drama that goes into it.
If they do lead to cancer though, it could lead to thousands of lawsuits by children, their families and others. If Juul does later on defend themselves and say they did nothing wrong selling this, that won’t really work as a defense that’ll hold up.
That’s because the courts will argue the idea that Juul knew about this yet they sold the product online, and that make sit easy for kids to get ahold of it. While it may be brought up, it’ll show that they were very negligent, which will lead to those kinds of lawsuits.
The key thing here is they should be sold in brick and mortar stores and not online for any reason, since it prevents minors from getting them.