Targeting kids

The FDA investigates alleged unsavory practices

Vaping is often pitched as a safer alternative to cigarettes — no cigarette burns, no yellow teeth, no virtual guarantee of cancer.

But the Center on Addiction looks upon vaping as addictive and says there is a growing concern that the chemicals used in vaping devices are harmful. And Fox News and others have opined that while vaping can be a path out of cigarette addiction, it can also be a path cigarettes.

Now the Food and Drug Administration is investigating possible unethical marketing by one of the country’s leading vaping manufacturers.

Juul, which controls more than 70 percent of the vaping market, finds itself the target of complaints that its brightly colored ads, fruit flavors and youthful models are aimed at teens.

Juul says its mission is to market vaping only to adults who are already cigarette smokers — twothirds of whom studies show would like to quit but often can’t.

But the FDA is investigating claims from a former employee that the company became aware in 2015 that its advertising was appealing to young people who were not traditional cigarette smokers.

Company executives noticed spikes in social media mentions of their products, the former employee said. And sales information showed that young customers were buying more vaping equipment and supplies than they could personally use — suggesting the products were being resold to younger users.

The FDA now wants to see Juul’s internal documents about its marketing strategy and design.

Juul claims to have converted a million adult cigarette smokers to its product. And, to be sure, vaping is preferable to combustible cigarettes. The health hazards associated with cigarette smoking are largely caused by the combustible smoke.

But, bottom line: Vaping still delivers addictive nicotine. And Juul faces several lawsuits from users who say the company’s vaping devices actually deliver

nicotine than combustible cigarettes.

What should be most concerning to parents and school officials who have become alarmed at the skyrocketing use of vaping devices in recent years is that the vaping industry is following a disturbing pattern. Much like the tobacco companies before them, vaping manufacturers have apparently targeted the most vulnerable, impressionable and least informed among us — the young. The vaping companies have also sought to cast doubt on concerns about the health effects of vaping. They have, finally, invested heavily in lobbying and even offered to fund anti-vaping campaigns in schools — a cynical offer many skeptical school officials have declined.

All of this is sleazy. Indeed, it is unconscionable.

The alternative to traditional cigarettes is not smoking at all. And that is the message we need to communicate to our young people.

A healthy culture would convey to the young that it’s not “cool” to vape. Rather, it’s cool to run, bike, kayak, shoot some hoops, do some yoga or just stroll along a river.