JUUL Should Pay To Combat Student Vaping, Livermore Schools Say

LIVERMORE, CA — One in four Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District high schoolers use some form of tobacco, and seven in 10 high school juniors said tobacco is very or fairly easy to get, according to the results of the California Healthy Kids Survey conducted in the school year from 2017 to 2018. Two-thirds of students surveyed said they could buy tobacco straight from retailers and a Livermore Police Department decoy operation found that four in eight retailers illegally sold tobacco to minors.

The district is blaming JUUL Labs— an electronic cigarette, or vape, company that controls three-quarters of the e-cigarette market — for an increase in youth tobacco use, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. LVJUSD claims the company marketed products to youth, designed products to be appealing to youth and falsely said vape products are safer than cigarettes. Now LVJUSD wants JUUL to pay for the "time, money, and human resources to combat this nuisance," the lawsuit said.

JUUL spokesperson Ted Kwong said in an email that the company serves adult smokers and does not intend to attract underage users.

"To the extent these cases allege otherwise, they are without merit," he wrote.

LVJUSD Superintendent Kelly Bowers said the district first became aware vaping was an issue when students brought it to their attention. And after years of minimal student tobacco use, the Healthy Kids Survey indicated that it was on the rise again. She said she hadn't seen anything like this in her 30-year career in schools.

"This was a different phenomenon," Bowers said. "It was touching everyone," regardless of socioeconomic status and across social groups.

Students have openly charged vapes in class, she said. Students, hooked on nicotine, were anxious. The devices are disruptive in class, Bowers said.

Staff have since been trained on vapes, but didn't know what to look for at first. Parents were missing the signs too, she said.

Some devices look like USB drives or markers. The smell can be fruity or like perfume — nothing like cigarettes — and one JUUL "pod" of vape fluid has about as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes, Bowers said. Vape users have some control over whether they visibly emit the white cloud of vapor.

Concerns about an uptick in youth vaping prompted the Livermore City Council to adopt an ordinance in July that would ban sales of tobacco within 1,000 feet from schools and places where youth gather, require tobacco product retailers to get a tobacco license from the city, and ban sales of flavored tobacco products, vapes and vape fluid, or vape juice, according to the lawsuit.

JUUL soon funded a political action committee, The Coalition for Reasonable Vaping Regulation in Livermore, and challenged the ordinance, according to the lawsuit. The district claims the group falsely said vapes are less dangerous than traditional cigarettes and rounded up enough signatories to put the ordinance on the March 2020 ballot.

JUUL withdrew its petition in October and did not explain its decision.

The ordinance will take effect in the new year, but "JUUL's advertising and marketing scheme will continue to harm the youth within the District who are now addicted to the harmful product, affecting not only their health, but their learning outcomes while in school," according to the lawsuit.

"What we're hoping is that if we stand up to JUUL, just like we did initially (to pass the ordinance), that they will back away and focus on something else besides marketing to youth" and addicting a new generation, Bowers said.

The lawsuit also claims that flavored vape juice, colorful ads featuring young adult models, the sleek JUUL design — similar in shape to a USB drive — and other product features were designed to cater to youth. JUUL refused to sign a pledge to not market to teens in a 2017 lawsuit settlement, the New York Times reported.

JUUL said in its statement that the company recently stopped accepting orders for its mint-flavored vape juice, intends to expand its commitment to reducing youth use through new technology, and ceased broadcast, print and digital ads. JUUL is investing in scientific research for its Food and Drug Administration Premarket Tobacco Product Application, which is required to market a tobacco product.

The FDA announced in September that it warned JUUL for "marketing unauthorized modified risk tobacco products by ... labeling, advertising, and/or other activities directed to consumers, including a presentation given to youth at a school."

“Regardless of where products like e-cigarettes fall on the continuum of tobacco product risk, the law is clear that, before marketing tobacco products for reduced risk, companies must demonstrate with scientific evidence that their specific product does in fact pose less risk or is less harmful," the FDA wrote.

School districts in the San Mateo and San Francisco areas have also filed suit against JUUL.