EdLawConnect Blog

On April 18, 2018, six leading public health and medical organizations insisted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take immediate action to address the rise in teenage usage of Juul electronic cigarettes. (See our April 10, 2018 blog entry about Juul devices here.) The groups cited recent research conducted by the Truth Initiative and published in the journal Tobacco Control, which revealed that 63 percent of current Juul users aged 15-24 did not know the product contains nicotine. Additionally, the research indicated that 25 percent of users may not even realize the product is an e-cigarette or tobacco product.

California schools are not immune from the increased use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), which include e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, and other vapor-emitting devices that contain liquid nicotine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of high school students who have used e-cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, from 4.7 percent to 10 percent. (CDC, Notes From the Field: Electronic Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students—United States (Sept. 6, 2013).) E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco and are marketed as the “healthier” alternative to tobacco cigarettes. However, State Superintendent Tom Torlakson urges school districts to adopt policies that prohibit the use of ENDS to protect youth from becoming addicted to nicotine and thus at greater risk for using tobacco. (Cal. Department of Education, Adopting Policy Prohibiting Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (March 19, 2014).)