Juul stops selling some flavors – but not the teens use most

Leading e-cigarette maker Juul announced on Thursday that it will immediately suspend the sale of some of its flavors. —Mango, Fruit, Creme (crème brulee) and Cucumber.

Specifically, mint and menthol flavors are not included in the off-flavors package.

The move is apparently to ease the growing alarm over the spike of teenage vaping ̵[ads1]1; which strongly prefers flavored products. About 25% of high school seniors recently reported using e-cigarette use in a health survey this year, up from 11% in 2017. About 12% of students said this year they used the products on a daily basis.

Officials have largely blamed the wave on Juul, which dominates the US market. As the youth arms boomed between 2017 and 2018, Juul saw sales increase 783%. Federal regulators and lawmakers have accused the company of making unjustified claims about the safety of their products and directly marketing them to teens.

In September, the Trump administration announced that it planned to ban all flavorful products to address what the Food and Drug Administration has called an "epidemic" of youth gun violence.

Shortly thereafter, Juul announced that the CEO was stepping down and that it was ending all US advertising and lobbying.

In today's announcement, Juul's new CEO KC Crosthwaite said: "We must reset the steam category by earning community trust and working with regulators, policy makers and stakeholders to combat underage use while offering an alternative to adult smokers."

Prior to taking up the position in Juul, Crosthwaite was the "Chief Growth Officer" of Altria Group Inc. are the teens most often use — The remaining flavors, mint and menthol, are.

According to federal data, of all colleges that used e-cigarettes between 2017 and 2018, nearly 68% reported using flavoring of some kind. But in the same group of high school weapons, just over 51% said they used mint and menthol products.

That was why federal officials in September indicated that they would seek to ban mint and menthol flavors as well as fruity and dessert flavors.

The data "shows that the youth is drawn to flavored e-cigarettes. Including mint and menthol," Health and Humanitarian Secretary Alex Azar said at an Oval Office meeting at the time.

The plan prompted some e-cigarette companies to look at legal challenges with such a ban, according to the New York Times, but in today's announcement, Juul said it "will fully support and follow the final policy when it is effective."