By Maura Healey
For the past 50 years, health advocates, state attorneys general, and a host of others fought to reduce cigarette use and stop young people from getting addicted to nicotine. That's why cigarette smoking among teens had reached an all-time low.
Unfortunately, all of that progress is at risk thanks to e-cigarettes and vape pens. These battery-powered devices, which often look like sleek USB flash drives, heat up liquid nicotine and flavoring to produce a vapor that resembles traditional cigarette smoke.
Over the past few months, I have been traveling to communities across Massachusetts, talking to middle and high school students about health, wellness, and substance use prevention. At every meeting, I have heard from parents, teachers, school nurses, and students themselves who are increasingly concerned with the prevalence of these products in schools. One district's wellness coordinator estimated that 80 percent of her high school students are now vaping. Remarkably, I even heard students tell me that 4th graders are starting to vape. Other students told me that most kids using these devices had no idea that they're taking any health risk at all.
Here are the facts. Just one cartridge used in these devices can contain as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes, not to mention the additional chemicals and potentially carcinogenic compounds. It's a highly addictive and dangerous combination that should not be anywhere near the developing lungs or brains of a 10, 12, or 14-year-old child.
First, we sent cease and desist letters to two online e-cigarette sellers that we allege have been violating state law. These companies are the online equivalent of a liquor store that doesn't check IDs and they're a big part of the problem.
Second, we announced an investigation into the country's largest e-cigarette manufacturer, JUUL Labs, whose products are so popular with young people that smoking e-cigarettes has become known as "Juuling."
JUUL is one of the biggest companies many adults have never heard of. It controls two-thirds of the $2 billion e-cigarette market in the United States. And way too much of their product is winding up in our schools.
We're asking the company some serious questions about how they're doing business. Are they tracking underage use of their products? What are they doing about it? And is this an intentional outcome of their own marketing?
Manufacturers of e-cigarette products often claim their goal is to provide an alternative for adult cigarette smokers. But when my office started looking into these products, we were stunned by the lengths to which some companies are going to market these products to kids.
They sell nicotine cartridges in candy flavors that smell and taste like Sour Patch Kids, bubblegum, and cotton candy. They design cases like the kind you can put on your smartphone, with designs of comic book characters like Spiderman and Captain America. They disguise the devices to look like magic markers, pens, and other school supplies. They even use ads that feature young models.
This strategy isn't about getting adults to stop smoking cigarettes - it's about getting kids to start vaping.
A generation ago, the major cigarette companies made a fortune by following a simple strategy: get smokers hooked while they're young, using cute mascots and television advertisements. It was an effective marketing strategy that led to untold loss of life and a public health disaster for our country. Thanks to the hard work of public health policymakers, the medical community, educators, anti-smoking advocates, and others, lung cancer and disease rates are declining across the country. Our Legislature recently took the important step of raising the minimum age to buy nicotine and tobacco products to 21.
We cannot afford to turn back now.
If you are a parent, talk to your kids about the dangers of these devices. If you are a teacher or a principal, make sure you have the resources you need to talk to students about making healthy decisions. If you know of a local or online retailer selling these products to minors, contact my office. And to the vaping companies, my message is simple: stop selling these products to children.
Maura Healey is the Attorney General of Massachusetts.