42 Time September 30, 2019
Jami Scheetz’s 15-year-old son Devon,
who has severe asthma, kicked a bru-
tal vaping habit over the summer, with
help from a nicotine patch. But as soon
as school started and he was once again
around kids vaping, his habit returned.
On Sept. 12, Devon vaped at school and
immediately began sweating and vom-
iting. Though Scheetz, who lives in
Sellersville, Pa., says her son is now fine,
she can’t shake thoughts of kids who have
been hospitalized or died after using
e-cigarettes. “Vaping scares me more
[than smoking], because they don’t know
what’s really in it,” she says.
To a remarkable degree, a single
company is front and center in one of
the biggest public-health crises facing
the country: the sharp rise in vaping
among teenagers and young adults. In
2018, 30% of the nation’s 12th-graders
reported vaping nicotine at least once
in the past year, according to a January
2019 study sponsored by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse. The study said
the increase in vaping last year was “the
largest ever recorded for any substance
in the 44 years” that it has tracked ado-
lescent drug use.
Though Juul is not the only
e-cigarette for sale in the U.S., it is
largely blamed for the vaping explo-
sion and controls about 50% of the mar-
ket, putting a sharp focus on the com-
pany. On Sept. 9, the Food and Drug
Administration sent Juul a warning let-
ter accusing the company of violat-
ing federal regulations by promoting
its e-cigarettes as a safer option than
traditional cigarettes and threaten-
ing the company with fines and prod-
uct seizures if it continued. Two days
later, the Trump Administration said
it planned to pull from the market fla-
vored e-cigarettes such as Juul’s mango,
creme and mint pods. In the Oval Office,
with First Lady Melania at his side,
President Trump said, “We can’t allowpeople to get sick. And we can’t have
our youth be so affected.” He added that
the First Lady, who tweeted a warning
about vaping, feels “very, very strongly”
about the issue because of their teenage
son Barron. Just days later, New York
banned most flavored e-cigarettes state-
wide, following in the footsteps of Mich-
igan and Juul’s home city of San Fran-
cisco, whose mayor signed an ordinance
effectively banning e-cigarettes. The re-
cent moves were prompted by U.S. Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) reports of almost 400 serious
lung illnesses and six deaths it linked
to vaping, which a congressional com-
mittee is also investigating. While Juul
products have not been implicated in the
deaths, the CDC in September advised
Americans to “consider not using e-cig-
arette products” while its investigation
is ongoing. The American Lung Associa-
tion went further, saying in a statement
that “no one should use e-cigarettes or
any other tobacco product.” Huge inter-
national markets, including India and
China, are also restricting the sale of
e-cigarettes.
Given the possible risks to the na-
tion’s youth, Juul’s rapid growth has
been accompanied by remarkably lit-
tle oversight or regulation. And whileSociety