Posts

JUUL and Vaping: Rising Use & Rising Deaths

There are two very concerning trends in vaping — rising use among teens and rising injury and death according to the Center for Disease Control [CDC]. These two vaping related data points are pointing toward the front end of what may become an epidemic. As of December 10, 2019, the CDC has documented a total of 2,409 hospitalizations related to vaping and confirmed 52 vaping-related deaths.

student vaping graph

At the same time, the National Youth Tobacco survey reports that since 2016, the percentage of U.S. high school students using e-cigarettes has more than doubled from 11.3% to 27.5%.

This massive increase in use by teens tracks the rise in popularity of JUUL brand of e-cigarettes. JUUL started with very little market share in 2016, but they ramped up their marketing campaigns to target teens. By the end of 2018, they had grabbed over 42% of the e-cigarette market share.

JUUL growthThe increase in vaping use amongst teens is leading to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths. The question is: “what is the underlying cause”? According to Science News, federal health officials have identified a possible culprit: vitamin E acetate, which is added to vaping products as a thickening agent.

What is becoming very clear is that we are seeing a drastic increase of the number of young and otherwise healthy individuals being hospitalized across the country due to vaping.

“While of course, these lung injuries related to vaping are very serious, it really is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Susan Walley, a pediatrician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. “The millions of kids who are using e-cigarettes now… what’s going to happen to all those kids in 10 years?”

It is too early to tell what will happen to all these kids in 10 years, but the early data is clearly pointing to the beginning of an epidemic of serious health consequences related to the increasing use of these dangerous products.

These two data points regarding increasing use combined with increasing injury and death amongst JUUL users is a stark contrast against the marketing campaigns of JUUL, who have touted e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to regular tobacco cigarettes.

The newly formed Multidistrict Litigation against JUUL will be procedurally similar to the MDLs formed in the Municipal Opioid Litigation and the Roundup Cancer litigation that Smith & Johnson is currently involved in. Smith & Johnson is currently interviewing potential Michigan claimants for inclusion in this litigation re: JUUL e-cigarettes. If you have questions about this litigation and what rights you may have, please contact Attorney Tim Smith at (231) 946-0700 for a free consultation.

/by

FDA Takes JUUL to Task For False Claims of JUUL Being a Safer Alternative

On September 18th, the Food and Drug Administration reprimanded JUUL for their false marketing around e-cigarettes being a safer alternative to cigarettes. The FDA ordered JUUL to “stop making unproven claims for its products” and “upped its scrutiny of a number of key aspects of Juul’s business, telling the company to turn over documents on its marketing, educational programs and nicotine formula” – NBC News

As reported by Smith & Johnson Attorney Tim Smith in the Legal Examiner:

Researches from Penn State University College of Medicine found that JUUL users’ blood nicotine concentrations were “almost three times as high as most of the e-cigarette users we previously studied,” said study first author Jessica Yingst, a research project manager. The study found that JUUL users “had higher levels of nicotine dependence than more than 3,000 long-term users of other e-cigarettes, according to the study.”

Study co-author Jonathan Foulds, a professor of public health sciences, noted: “In previous studies, we found that e-cigarette users were less addicted than smokers. However, the high nicotine delivery of the product and the scores on this study suggest that Juul is probably as addictive as cigarettes.”

These findings are particularly problematic given JUUL’s targeted marketing to youth.

The September 18th FDA warning letter discusses JUUL’s problematic history of marketing to youth and “highlights an incident recounted by two New York high school students during a congressional hearing in July. The students said a representative of Juul was invited to address the school as part of an assembly on mental health and addiction issues. During the presentation, the students said the representative told them the company’s product was “totally safe.” The representative also showed students a Juul device and claimed the FDA “was about to come out and it was 99 percent safer than cigarettes.”” – NBC News

This reprimand from the FDA comes right on the heels of the first double lung transplant surgery on a 17 year old male here in Michigan. The doctor who performed the surgery stated that vaping was what destroyed the young man’s lungs and necessitated the transplant.

JUUL is now facing a series of lawsuits across the country as a direct result of their deceptive marketing and the dangerous side effects of their products which they intentionally hid from consumers.

The newly formed Multidistrict Litigation involving JUUL will be procedurally similar to the MDLs formed in the Municipal Opioid Litigation and the Roundup Cancer litigation that Smith & Johnson is currently involved in. Smith & Johnson is currently interviewing potential Michigan claimants for inclusion in this Federal MDL re: JUUL e-cigarettes. If you have questions about this litigation and what rights you may have, please contact Attorney Tim Smith at (231) 946-0700 for a free consultation.

/by

JUUL Accused Of Knowingly Shipping Over 1,000,000 Contaminated Pods

JUUL knowingly shipped over one million contaminated pods, as claimed by former JUUL Senior Vice President Siddarth Breja. Breja claims he was fired for raising concerns over the issue.

As reported by Legal Examiner:

Breja filed suit over the incident and in his pleadings alleged that JUUL CEO Kevin Burns responded to Breja’s concerns about the contaminated pods saying, “Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fo’s, who the f*** is going to notice the quality of our pods?”.

From Tech Crunch:

Breja alleges that when he complained about Juul’s refusal to issue a product recall or health and safety notice, Danaher [JUUL CFO] said doing so would cost the company billions of dollars in lost sales, hurting its then-$38 billion valuation. About a week later, Breja says the company fired him, telling him that it was because he had misrepresented himself as former chief financial officer at Uber. In the lawsuit, Breja says the claim was “preposterous,” and that he had accurately represented his former position as a chief financial officer of a division at Uber.

The timing of Breja’s lawsuit coincides with JUUL announcing mass layoffs of 10-15% of it’s workforce and the departure of four executives. As lawsuits continue to mount against JUUL arising out of the death and serious injuries to their customers, more and more facts are coming to light regarding the dangers of vaping. The Center for Disease Control announced on October 17th that 33 people have died from vaping related lung illnesses as the nationwide outbreak continues to grow (Live Science).

The newly formed Multidistrict Litigation involving JUUL will be procedurally similar to the MDLs formed in the Municipal Opioid Litigation and the Roundup Cancer litigation that Smith & Johnson is currently involved in. Smith & Johnson is currently interviewing potential Michigan claimants for inclusion in this Federal MDL re: JUUL e-cigarettes. If you have questions about this litigation and what rights you may have, please contact Attorney Tim Smith at (231) 946-0700 for a free consultation.

/by

Vaping Related Death Reported in Michigan

The first vaping related death has been reported in Michigan. Michigan Health and Human Services announced the death of an adult male due to vaping related lung injury on Oct. 2.

In the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. David C. Christiani, M.D. writes of vaping related deaths and notes that “there is clearly an epidemic that begs for an urgent response.” Between statewide bans of vaping and the recently formed multidistrict litigation we are beginning to see such a response.

Here at Smith & Johnson we are currently interviewing potential Michigan claimants for inclusion in the recently formed multidistrict litigation re: JUUL e-cigarette.

From the Legal Examiner:

As the New York Times reports: “Juul Labs, the dominant e-cigarette company, illegally marketed its vaping products as a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration said on Monday, casting a deepening shadow over the safety of e-cigarette devices.”

As recently as September, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter, to JUUL. In that warning letter, the FDA stated that JUUL violated federal regulations by touting it’s vaping products as being safer than traditional tobacco products.

It’s becoming clear that vaping is probably a much more dangerous alternative to traditional tobacco products. Dr. Brandon Larson, a surgical pathologist at Mayo Clinic recently reviewed lung biopsies from 17 patients, all of whom had vaped. He confirmed direct chemical injury to the lungs “similar to what one might see with exposure to toxic chemical fumes, poisonous gases and toxic agents”.

This newly formed Multidistrict Litigation involving JUUL will be procedurally similar to the MDLs formed in the Municipal Opioid Litigation and the Roundup Cancer litigation that Smith & Johnson is currently involved in. Smith & Johnson is currently interviewing potential Michigan claimants for inclusion in this Federal MDL re: JUUL e-cigarettes. If you have questions about this litigation and what rights you may have, please contact Attorney Tim Smith at 231.946.0700 for a free consultation.

/by
,

Multidistrict Litigation formed in JUUL/e-cigarette Lawsuits

October 2th marked the beginning of multidistrict litigation for JUUL/e-cigarette lawsuits.

As Smith & Johnson Attorney Tim Smith writes in the Legal Examiner:

The Federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation [MDL] entered an order yesterday creating a MDL and centralizing all federal cases against JUUL Labs, Inc into the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California. On October 2nd, the U. S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation heard oral argument from the attorneys involved in over 50 current Federal lawsuits filed against JUUL Labs, Inc. [JLI] and granted the motion to form the MDL.

The lawsuits allege JUUL has marketed it’s JUUL nicotine delivery products in a manner designed to attract minors, that JUUL’s marketing misrepresents or omits that JUUL products are more potent and addictive than cigarettes, that JUUL products are defective and unreasonably dangerous due to their attractiveness to minors and that JUUL promotes nicotine addiction.

This newly formed Multidistrict Litigation involving JUUL will be procedurally similar to the MDLs formed in the Municipal Opioid Litigation and the Roundup Cancer litigation that Smith & Johnson is currently involved in. Smith & Johnson is currently interviewing potential Michigan claimants for inclusion in this Federal MDL re: JUUL e-cigarettes. If you have questions about this litigation and what rights youmay have, please contact Attorney Tim Smith at 231.946.0700 for a free consultation.

/by