Whether you are a smoker or non-smoker, whether you are a teenager or adult, you will most definitely have heard about Juul and juuling. Juuling seems to be everywhere. On the streets, on the news, and on social media. But how did Juul become so popular only four years after launching?
A teenage girl enjoying her Juul drives (credit Maxi Pixel)
Adam Bowen and James Monsees, the creators of Juul, wanted to create a less harmful and more socially acceptable replacement for cigarettes. They established their company Pax Labs in 2007, and in 2015 they introduced their new product—Juul. The popular device resembles a long USB stick works by heating liquids tucked in via a pod that comes in different flavors from mango to cucumber and contains a similar amount of nicotine as a regular pack of cigarettes.
The popularity of the product has ballooned in the last couple of years. PaxLabs extended Juul as an independent firm in 2017, and since then, the company has tripled its sales. The company currently holds about 70% of the US e-cigarette market, making an estimated $2 billion in sales this year. The Juul is also sold in seven other countries, including the UK and Germany.
One of the things that make Juul so unique, and at the same time more addictive, is its high level of nicotine as compared to other e-cigarettes.The founders said that the delivery of more nicotine was intended to attract more smokers to switch to their products. But critics of the product claim that the advertisement campaigns mainly target teenagers by portraying the devices as ‘cool’, and do not inform their customers of its higher content of nicotine. The gaining popularity of Jull and other e-cigarettes in is perceived as one of the main causes of nicotine addiction among teens.
On Monday, three school districts in the American state of Long Island filed a case against the e-cigarette company. They claim that the manufacturer explicitly advertises its product to young people, leaving schools to deal (on their own) with the consequence of rising numbers of vaping students.
Some actions that schools have already taken against vaping include; putting sensors in bathrooms, employing more staff, and giving resources for programs against nicotine addiction. All of which cost money. Juul’s have denied the allegation that they market their products to teenagers.
Teachers claim that their students do not consider the dangerous effect of the chemicals they are inhaling, simply because they are unaware of the high levels of nicotine in it. This raises the question of how e-cigarettes should be advertised. Currently, the ban applies only to cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. E-cigarettes are identified as separate products by the law.
The U.K. has adopted the European Union's Tobacco Products Directive, which regulates the e-cigarettes’ nicotine content and how the industry advertises. Although the numbers of teens addicted to nicotine in the UK is not as high as in the US, the influence of e-cigarettes should not be underestimated. As long as e-cigarettes are not treated by the law the same way as other tobacco products, customers will continue to believe that e-cigarettes are harmless. Better regulation should control how nicotine products are depicted in mainstream media. This is one step towards altering the perception that e-cigarettes are safe.
Rebeka Melamed, student at Queen Mary University of London
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