In a warning letter to JUUL Labs, Inc., the FDA accused the company of falsely advertising their vapes as “99% safer than cigarettes” and “totally safe.”
JUUL was accused of making these statements directly to children in school without any teachers in the room or parental consent.
Meredith Berkman, a New York City resident and co-founder of Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes (PAVe), testified that a JUUL representative gave a misleading presentation to her child in school.
The in-school presentations and JUUL’s unproven safety claims targeted at teenagers came to light during a Congressional hearing in July 2019.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless said in a statement:
“JUUL has ignored the law, and very concerningly, has made some of these statements in school to our nation’s youth.”
Earlier this month, the FDA called youth vaping an “epidemic.” The agency issued more than 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers who illegally sold JUUL and other e-cigarette products to minors.
The vast majority of the violations were for stores that illegally sold Vuse, Blu, JUUL, MarkTen XL, and Logic e-cigarettes to kids.
The number of young people who admitted using e-cigarettes has skyrocketed in the last few years, jumping from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).