Colorado teen sues Juul

Aldawoodi, 19, alleges e-cigarette giant isn’t warning public of vaping dangers

A Colorado teenager has filed a federal lawsuit against vaping giant Juul, claiming the company’s electronic cigarettes caused him permanent injuries that will require lifelong medical treatment.

Mohammed Aldawoodi, 19, filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver, claiming Juul “intentionally targeted adolescents” in marketing campaigns while “negligently failing to adequately and correctly warn the Plaintiff and the public of the dangers of Juul.”

Aldawoodi began using Juul products around November 2016, according to the claim. As a result, he suffers from “nicotine addiction and was caused to sustain severe and permanent personal injuries, pain, suffering and emotional distress.”

The lawsuit does not allege Aldawoodi suffers from the deadly vaping-related illness that has been contracted by hundreds of people around the nation.

Juul representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

The lawsuit says Juul failed to place nicotine warnings on packaging until August 2018.

Juul used social media platforms — including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — to target adolescents and the company also “hired social media influencers, with large adolescent followings” to promote its product, an Electronic Nicotine Delivery System, “that produces an aerosol vapor that is inhaled by users,” according to the lawsuit.

As a result of Juul’s “aggressive marketing efforts, the FDA found that from 2017 to 2018 there was a 78% increase in high schoolers who used e-cigarettes and a 48% increase in middle schoolers,” the lawsuit said.

Juul concealed knowledge of “nicotine content and other harmful chemicals” contained in its product from the “public in general,” according to the lawsuit.

“Nicotine withdrawal is categorized by irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, decreased heart rate, increased appetite or weight gain, dysphoric or depressed mood, and insomnia,” the lawsuit said.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Juul Labs Inc. plans to cut about 500 jobs in the coming months as the company anticipates the Trump administration’s proposed ban on e-cigarette flavors.

Last month, the administration announced that the Food and Drug Administration will develop guidelines to remove from the market all e-cigarette flavors except tobacco as a way to fight the surge in underage vaping.

The move by the FDA comes

amid growing concern over the health effects of vaping.

As of early October, more than 1,000 cases of vapingrelated lung disease had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a death toll of at least 34 nationwide, according to federal health data.

Colorado health officials are investigating the death of an 18-year-old man in the

Denver area that they suspect may be linked to vaping. Eleven cases of the vaping-related illness have been confirmed in Colorado.

Vaping-related injuries have been reported in almost every state, according to The Washington Post, and deaths have been confirmed in the following states: California, Kansas, Oregon, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey and Virginia.

Federal health officials suspect the cause of the lung disease to be some kind of chemical exposure, but have not identified a single e-cigarette or vaping product, brand or specific substance definitively linked to the national outbreak, according to The Washington Post. Officials do say, however, that most patients reported using vaping products with THC, and that appears to be a key in the national outbreak. Kieran Nicholson: 303-9541822, knicholson@ denverpost.com or @kierannicholson