The Food and Drug Administration conducted a suprise inspection of the Juul Lab’s headquarters in San Francisco.
The FDA had given Juul and other e-cig companies 60 days to come up with a plan to reduce teenage use of their products. The other companies given this ultimatum were Vuse, MarkTen XL, Blu and Logic.
Juul and its competitors now have 40 days left to come up with a way of reducing teen use. Their potential solutions must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
By the second week in November this year, they need to have come up with a plan and release it to the FDA and the public.
Juul is specifically being targeted by the FDA because of how popular they are among youth and adult users.
According to the New York Times, the FDA are said to have left the headquarters with thousands of documents related to the company’s sales and marketing.
The reason behind this suprise visit was to put more pressure on the company. Juul is responsible for 72 percent of the e-cigarette market and they are still most popular among high school students.
Juul’s executive officer Kevin Burns said the company gave over more than 50,000 pages of documents to meet the requests of the FDA.
Burns also comments, “We want to be part of the solution in preventing underage use.”
To meet the FDA’s request Juul has started a huge campagin to run ads on Youtube, Spotify, and other services to warn about the dangers of nicotine vapes.
Ads are being placed in high school bathrooms for the frst time ever according to the Washington Post. These ads will be placed in over 10,000 high schools across the United states.
Regarding the popularity of this investigation, Bloomsburg University student and mass communication major Jordan Hummel says,”I have heard about the investigation on Juuls. I have conflicting feelings about Juuls because three of my friends were able to quit cigarettes, but I think Juul is an addiction as well. It is important to understand what is in them. I think the FDA is just pressing the company because they are not getting a cut of their profit.”
While Juuls are common among students, some are not familiar with the controversy’s surrounding them.
Communication Studies major Matt Lattazio says, “I don’t know much about the investigations. But from what I know and have heard that in moderation a Juul is beneficial for those trying to quit but people definitly abuse them.”Also Communications major Jasmine Caban has “not heard of Juuls or the investigations of them”.