Juuls have become immensely popular in the past couple years. If you walk anywhere on a college campus, you'll see at least 3 people walking around, putting a small little black usb-looking thing into their mouth. If you've ever walked behind someone juuling, you might even be hit by a waft of mango or bubblegum or whatever fruity flavor. But, how exactly is juul harming young people?
Juuls are a long, flat device with a smooth surface that almost resembles a flash drive. The ingredients are activated by a heating element, rather than a flame. The pods store the liquid vape juice and contain nicotine. The pods can come in a variety of flavors, such as mango or fruit medley. While you have to be 21 to purchase a juul, kids as young as middle schoolers are beginning to juul.
The pods contain 5% nicotine, which is equivalent to one pack of cigarettes. Most people who quit cigarettes and turn to e-cigarettes choose nicotine content closer to 1.2-2.4%, which is still far less than a juul pod. As we know, nicotine is a very addictive substance that is extremely difficult to quit. It can harm adolescent brain development, which continues into the early to mid-20s. The other effects include: indigestion, nausea, upper respiratory tract infections, and heart palpitations. Nicotine also reduces the amount of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which is necessary for memory consolidation and repair. These health effects may seem short-term but long-term effects aren't available yet due to juuls just coming on the scene in the past 5 years.
Just a month ago, Juul came under fire for selling contaminated vaping pods. Siddharth Breja, the vice president of global finance for Juul, claimed that he was inappropriately terminated in March, days after concerns about a shipment of mint-flavored refill kits and for protesting the company's refusal to alert the public. As of November 2019, New York, California, and North Carolina have sued Juul Labs Inc. The lawsuits, not only include information about the pods being contaminated, but also about how Juul is directly targeting young people through strategic marketing while not doing enough to describe the harms of the vaping.
So, while juuls may not have given off the awful smell of cigarettes, they are just as dangerous. It seems like the company knows what it is doing by targeting their extremely addictive product to children so that they can keep them as customers for a long time. It's better to quit juuling while you're ahead so as to not endanger your health.