Oregon Student Sues Juul, Says They Failed To Properly Inform Customers About Health Risks
The vape giant Juul is in the middle of plenty of backlash at the moment as more and more reports continue to emerge of people suffering from health issues after excessively using their products. Now, a student from the University of Oregon named Kewmarse Imani has filed a lawsuit against the company. He claims that Juul failed to adequately inform customers about the health risks their products pose, according to JPR News.
In addition to Juul, Imani is also suing Altria, another vaping giant who also happens to own part of Juul’s stock. Imani first started vaping using the popular Juul back in 2018. He became addicted due to the high amounts of nicotine the Juul pods contain and began using the device excessively. He later suffered a seizure due to his addiction.
Now, he claims that he was not properly informed the extent to which the Juul can cause physical injury or that the pods were even addictive in the first place. While the current packaging of the Juul products does state boldly that it contains nicotine and that it is highly addictive, its early packaging was not as descriptive. Imani continues on to accuse Juul of being negligent in the way it has marketed its products, particularly to minors, the lawsuit states.
The FDA says teen vaping is an epidemic. JUUL CEO acknowledges his product is a big part of the problem. Roughly 1 in 5 high school students, & nearly 1 in 20 middle school students said they vaped last year.
JUUL's CEO tells CBS News what's being done to stop underage vaping. pic.twitter.com/i2PbftQmPi
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) August 29, 2019
“JUUL has known since it first put its electronic cigarettes on the market that its electronic cigarettes contain nicotine, that nicotine is an addictive substance, and that nicotine can cause injuries in addition to addiction. But JUUL, in many of its advertisements, failed to inform consumers that its products contain any nicotine at all, much less inform consumers that its electronic cigarettes have significantly more nicotine than competitors’ electronic cigarettes.”
This lawsuit comes after several major changes that have come about in regards to legislature involving vaping. As The Inquisitr previously reported, President Donald Trump recently decided to ban flavored vaping products in an effort to curb youth addiction to nicotine products like those offered by Juul. Fruit medley, mint, mango, and creme brulee flavors that were once offered by Juul will no longer be found on shelves. Its tobacco flavor will remain available.
In addition, the Food and Drug Administration recently announced that the age of which one must be to legally buy products containing nicotine has been raised from 18-years-old to 21-years-old. All of these measures have been made in hopes of making these addictive products less accessible to those underage.
