The e-cigarette epidemic — recognizing Big Tobacco's Trojan horse
In November, the American Medical Association, representing the nation’s physicians, called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action against the “urgent public health epidemic” of skyrocketing e-cigarette use.
In early December, then-Senator Hatch (R-UT) introduced the Smoke Free Schools Act, which — among other measures — called on the FDA to partner with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Department of Education to discourage e-cigarette use among students and to study gaps in knowledge of the harms of e-cigarettes on youth, including injuries and poisoning.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently reported on urgent concerns of the impact of e-cigarettes on youth. Focusing on the extremely popular Juul (with 72 percent of the market as of August, 2018), they reported one pod is equivalent to approximately 20 combustible cigarettes — a full pack.