Right now, over a quarter of high school students in the country use e-cigarettes (or have used them in the last 30 days). But public officials are now cracking down on the products at a rapid pace. There’s a domino effect going on as states jump on the flavor-ban bandwagon, and just today, the CEO of JUUL Labs announced he would be stepping down.
Here’s what’s you need to know:
Today:
- Kevin Burns, the CEO of the most popular e-cigarette company, JUUL, announced his resignation, handing over the company’s leadership to an executive from the tobacco company, Altria
- JUUL also announced it would end its controversial marketing campaign, "Make the Switch," which many people say implies that vaping is safer than regular cigarettes which is not proven
- Rhode Island issued a ban on the sale of flavored vaping products.
Yesterday:
- Massachusetts announced a four-month ban on the sale of all vaping products (not just the flavored ones)
- California health officials issued a statement urging people to stop vaping right away.
- A vaping-related death in Kansas brought the total number to 9 deaths nationwide
Last week:
- New York passed a state-wide ban on flavored e-cigarette sales
This Month:
- The Trump Administration announced plans to potentially ban flavored e-cigarettes nationwide
- Michigan banned flavored e-cigarette sales (becoming the first state to do so)
- Preliminary results from the National Youth Tobacco Survey indicated that more than a quarter of high school students in the U.S. were current (past 30 days) e-cigarette users this year
Why Four Months?
Baker said the temporary ban would give medical experts a chance to "identify what is making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents."
The four-month ban, Massachusetts officials say, will allow experts to investigate the mysterious illnesses and deaths. (Most of these deaths and illnesses, it's worth noting, have been linked to marijuana vaping products, not nicotine products such as the JUUL.)
Four months probably isn't enough time to evaluate cancer risk, though; experts tell SurvivorNet that it will take years to start seeing how vaping affects the body long-term.
RELATED: The Issue With Vaping Doctors Don't Know How Dangerous It Is Yet
"Vaping is still in its infancy," Dr. Raja Flores, Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System, told SurvivorNet in a previous conversation about e-cigarettes. "In order to prove something causes cancer, you need a large number of people and a longer period of time."
Dr. Brendon Stiles, a thoracic surgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, echoed Dr. Flores' point in a conversation with SurvivorNet. "The reason doctors can't say with certainty that vaping is dangerous is that there simply hasn't been enough time to study the long-term effects yet," Dr. Stiles said, adding that, because there are so many unknowns, it is urgent that doctors begin this research sooner rather than later.
"It's very pressing to start researching this now," Dr. Stiles said. "If we wait 10 to 15 years until we see the clinical effects in all these kids who are taking up vaping, it's going to be too late. What effect do these compounds have on lung health? On lung inflammation? On young people, on old people? There was just a landmark study published in the American Cancer Society about rates of cancer falling and the death rate of cancer falling the lowest in 25 years. Now with vaping and JUUL, people are worried. Could that turn around? Are we going to see a spike?"
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