New York sued a number of massive e-cigarette producers, distributors and retailers on Thursday, saying they fueled a youth vaping epidemic by promoting merchandise with cartoonish packaging and flavors resembling Baja Slushie, Strawberry Cereal Donut Milk and OMG Blow Pop.
Letitia James, the state’s legal professional basic, is looking for a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in civil fines and damages from 16 company and particular person defendants for gross negligence and making a public nuisance by promoting fruit- and candy-flavored vapor merchandise to impressionable youngsters.
James mentioned the defendants did this regardless of realizing the well being dangers, and regardless of a 2020 state legislation that bans gross sales of flavored vapor merchandise and requires vape purchasers to be a minimum of 21. She additionally referred to as the gross sales unlawful beneath federal legislation.
“The vaping business is taking a web page out of Massive Tobacco’s playbook: they’re making nicotine appear cool, getting children hooked, and creating an enormous public well being disaster within the course of,” James mentioned in an announcement.
The defendants embrace Demand Vape, a Buffalo, New York-based distributor of Elf Bar, the preferred e-cigarette amongst center and highschool college students in line with final 12 months’s National Youth Tobacco Survey.
One other defendant is Puff Bar, a Glendale, California-based firm whose namesake e-cigarette topped the survey in 2022.
Collectively, the defendants “have satisfied the general public that flavored e-cigarettes are informal enjoyable,” in line with the criticism filed in Manhattan federal courtroom.
Demand Vape and Puff Bar didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Many vaping firms market e-cigarettes to adults as an alternative choice to conventional cigarettes.
E-cigarettes have been probably the most used tobacco product amongst U.S. youngsters since 2014.
In line with the 2024 youth tobacco survey, 5.9% of center and highschool college students, equal to 1.63 million youngsters, reported utilizing e-cigarettes at present. Almost 9 in 10 customers reported utilizing flavored merchandise.
In December, the U.S. Supreme Court docket heard arguments on whether or not the Meals and Drug Administration lawfully blocked two e-cigarette firms from promoting flavored vape merchandise with such names as Jimmy The Juice Man Peachy Strawberry and Suicide Bunny Mom’s Milk and Cookies.
A federal appeals courtroom dominated in January 2024 that the FDA denial had been arbitrary and capricious. Seven different federal appeals courts had sided with the company in comparable circumstances.
Whatever the end result, James, a Democrat, could also be attempting to plug a gap if the FDA pulls again on oversight.
Republican President Donald Trump vowed throughout his 2024 marketing campaign to “save vaping,” regardless of supporting a ban on flavored vaping merchandise throughout his first White Home time period.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Modifying by Christian Schmollinger)
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