E-cigarette company suspends some in-store flavored product sales

Leading e-cigarette maker JUUL Labs has agreed to temporarily halt sales of certain flavors in a bid to curb teenage use of their product.

According to BBC News, the company will suspend sales of all flavors except tobacco, menthol and mint at retailers until shops can verify the buyer's age.

Chief executive Kevin Burns said JUUL did not want to be "an on-ramp for America's youth" to take up smoking.

In September, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was considering banning the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, citing an "epidemic" of use among teens.

The FDA gave the five biggest agencies - JUUL, Vuse, MarkTen, blu e-cigs, and Logic - 60 days to come forward with plans to address the concerns, or face penalties.

Under its new rules, JUUL will no longer sell products to anyone under 21 years of age - even in states where the legal age to buy such products is lower.

The company will halt sales of the flavored products in all retail outlets until those shops can prove they have a system in place to verify consumer's ages. The products will still be available on JUUL’s website though.

The company is also shutting down its Instagram and Facebook social media channels, and said it would work with companies to take "unauthorized, youth-oriented content" from these platforms related to its products.

There were however concerns the company is not going far enough.

“Some kids do not even know that JUULs contain nicotine.” Cliff Douglas, American Cancer Society Vice President for Tobacco Control said. “They don’t understand they are being exposed to an addictive drug that also can harm a young person’s brain development.”

Altria, the tobacco firm which owns Marlboro, announced it would stop selling several of its e-cigarette products altogether in October, and according to a report by US broadcaster CNBC last week JUUL was expected to permanently discontinue its fruity flavors, rather than merely halting sales temporarily.

The JUUL's small size, multiple flavors and discrete shape - it looks somewhat like a USB drive - has made it a hit among teens.

"In my opinion it looks like the coolest thing ever," one student told the New York Times in an article on the new phenomenon. "Almost futuristic."

JUUL products are available at more than 90,000 retail outlets, including traditional tobacco retailers, convenience stores and specialty vape shops.

JUUL e-cigarettes were first created by PAX Labs in 2015 before being spun off into their own company. In 2017 they held 13% of the e-cigarette market. However according to research published by the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year, JUUL is now by far the industry leader with a 72% market share.

(Image courtesy Reuters)