Tobacco doesn’t just mean cigarettes anymore – the number of new e-cigarettes and vaping products on the market is astonishing. Many of these new products are designed to entice new customers, including kids, with thousands of appealing flavors, and with a look that is easy to hide in plain sight.
Google it: “teens hooked on JUUL”
JUUL vaping products are perfect examples of this deceitful tactic. It’s an e-cigarette that is easily mistaken for a flash drive or portable phone charger and can be discreetly charged on a laptop, making it extremely difficult for parents and teachers to spot. A JUUL can even be dressed up to look even more harmless by adding a sticker decal to the outside that come in fun, bright colors.
But don’t be fooled by it’s innocent look, a JUUL is still a highly addictive tobacco product with high nicotine levels. Its look hides its potency – sized less than a square inch, the JUUL pod, the part of a JUUL filled with flavors and nicotine, packs a powerful punch and may contain the same amount of nicotine levels as a pack of cigarettes or 200 hits.1
What is concerning is that teens can go through a JUUL pod in one day. Health experts have become alarmed by JUUL’s growing popularity among youth, driven by a combination of kid-friendly flavors, high nicotine levels and a new look.1
Not only is nicotine highly addictive, but it’s a neurotoxin, which means it’s a poison that acts on the nervous system. Nicotine exposure can have lasting damaging effects on adolescent brain development, including cognition, attention and mood.2 But nicotine isn’t the only problem – we’re now seeing evidence that chemicals used in e-cigarette “juice” can cause severe respiratory disease.3
E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used type of tobacco product among California high school students.4 Research also shows that youth who use e-cigarettes are three times more likely to use traditional cigarettes a year later.5
Don’t let the innocent packaging or attractive flavors used by tobacco companies fool you into thinking they’re selling anything other than a dangerous, addictive product. To learn more about e-cigarettes, including JUUL, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s fact sheet on the popularity and harm of e-cigarettes here.
