Juul to pay nearly $440M in teen vaping probe

Juul electronic cigarettes
Juul electronic cigarettes (Shutterstock)
Shutterstock

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the electronic cigarette manufacturer agreed to the settlement on Tuesday.

The settlement puts an end to 33 states’ two-year investigation into Juul’s marketing practices. The investigation found that Juul used free giveaways, launch parties, and youthful models in their advertisements to attract younger users.

The settlement amounts to roughly 25% of the company’s sales of $1.9 billion last year. Tong said that the settlement will help stem what he called an epidemic of teen vaping.

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Is teen vaping actually an epidemic? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that about 11.3% of high schoolers and only about 2.8 percent of middle schoolers were currently using e-cigarettes.

A 2018 survey from the CDC said only 14.9% of adults had ever vaped, and only 3.2% currently vaped. About 12.5% of adults smoked traditional cigarettes in 2020, according to the CDC.

This story originally appeared in WORLD. © 2022, reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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