Juul Ends E-Cigarette Sales Of Mint-Flavored Pods

Source from:  The NewYork Times 11/08/2019

The troubled e-cigarette company moved in advance of an expected federal ban on most flavored e-cigarettes that have become popular with teenage vapers.

Juul Labs, the nation’s largest seller of e-cigarettes, said on Thursday that it would stop selling mint-flavored pods, which have become especially popular among teenagers.

The move precedes an anticipated federal flavor ban that is to be announced soon, one that the Food and Drug Administration initially had said would include mint as well as menthol. In recent weeks, intense lobbying by the vaping and tobacco industries against a menthol ban has heightened speculation that menthol would be exempt from any prohibitions against flavors.

Juul said on Thursday that it would continue to sell menthol pods and its two tobacco products.

The company’s decision also followed the release earlier this week of two major surveys showing another year-over-year spike in teenage vaping of e-cigarettes, and the rising popularity of mint-flavored nicotine pods as other youth-friendly flavors like unicorn milk were pulled from retail shelves. Public health experts have urged the federal government and lawmakers to impose strict limits on the variety of e-cigarettes, which remain on the market despite little evidence that they are safe.

Besides the surveys showing about 27 percent of high school students reporting that they had vaped e-cigarettes recently, hospitals and doctors have been startled in recent months by an alarming outbreak of lung injuries largely related to vaping products containing THC, the high-inducing ingredient in marijuana. Some patients, however, have reported vaping both THC and nicotine products, leaving researchers to suggest there may be more than one culprit behind the respiratory illnesses.  Enditem