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They look like the electronic cigarette Juul. They taste a bit like Juul. But they are not Juul.
The market-leading electronic cigarette company has stopped selling fruity aromas of nicotine capsules in retail stores during last fall, under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration to stem the tide. she had declared as an "epidemic" of teenage vaping. However, mango, fruit and cream pods continue to line the store shelves – presumably many of them are fake.
Juul users have been inundated with many alternatives since. Some companies have rushed to make "compatible" pods that can be sprayed with Juul devices but are marketed under different brands. Then there are the most disturbing counterfeit products, which come in the form of genuine Juul capsules to the naked eye.
Concerns about the effects of vaping on health are increasing as more and more users report health problems. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 22 states had reported 193 possible cases of serious lung disease and a death associated with the use of the electronic cigarette.
For Juul, the counterfeit pods add another risk to the already struggling society. Parents and regulators may not distinguish if juveniles use real or fake Juul products. And it's hard to know exactly what users inhale when they eat fake pods.
"Counterfeit products pose a direct threat to public health and our plan to fight youth use," Juul CEO Kevin Burns said in a statement, adding that "other people companies illegally and aggressively sell counterfeit "JUULpods", which are made with unknown ingredients and under unknown quality and manufacturing standards. "
Health officials believe that it is too early to identify the cause of nearly 200 cases of severe lung disease. All they know at this point is that they are associated with vaping and, often, products containing THC, the substance found in marijuana that produces a high concentration.
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said these cases were likely related to counterfeit products operating with commonly used devices, including Juul. Gottlieb, who is a contributor to CNBC, said the clustering of diseases suggests that these products "are coming to local markets."
"The responsible companies … have removed their flavored products from convenience stores, like Juul, so what fills the void is these counterfeit flavored products," he said in an interview with "Squawk Box".
Adrian Punderson, vice president of intellectual property protection at Juul, said that he could not quantify the increase in counterfeit products that Juul had seen since the company had removed the flavored pods from the stores . However, he added, in any sector, companies that manufacture imitations identify the most popular products and manufacture them most of the time "because that makes sense. commercially ".
"Overall, when it comes to striking factories and products seized at the packaging level, every flavor is literally available," said Punderson, who joined Juul earlier this year after working at PwC and Apple.
Juul's investigations into counterfeit products have all been escalated in China, the company said. Police have raided 15 factories in China this year, Punderson said, seizing "hundreds of thousands of counterfeit products from factories dedicated to producing counterfeit Juul products."
Some raids have uncovered dirty factories and unsanitary working conditions, he said. For example, investigators found liquids stored on the floor and in dirty containers with workers using ketchup spray bottles to inject the liquid into the pods. Employees also used visibly dirty cloths to remove excess fluid from the bottle, pods and their hands, Punderson said.
The FDA reiterated its previous statement on the subject, saying it was investigating counterfeit electronic cigarette products, "as well as whether companies are introducing new electronic cigarettes in violation of the requirements for electronic cigarettes." Pre-sale authorization ".
These efforts did not prevent the groups of players from putting themselves in the hands of the people. Counterfeits are such a hot topic on the Juul discussion forum on Reddit that moderators have begun to tag all posts asking whether the pods are real or fake.
Ali, a 24-year-old man in New York who asked not to publish his last name for professional reasons, said that he sometimes spent 20 minutes examining a box of capsules. He checks the color of the liquid inside each capsule – the fakes tend to be much darker than the real ones, he says.
Once he determined that it was probably legitimate, he inserted the pod into his device. He takes a shot and knows right away, "wrong".
"It just tastes bad," he said. "I hit her once and I almost vomited her."
Ali completely stopped vaping because he was worried about the lack of regulation of the electronic cigarette and the transparency of what he was blowing on. Juul says that he takes product safety "seriously" and that he performs "extensive preclinical and toxicological testing of ingredients" in his liquids and aerosols.
Ali had stopped smoking cigarettes with the cold turkey before taking Juul, so he had told himself that he could also stop vaping.
Luis Rodriguez, a 21-year-old independent video publisher, said it was strange to see Juul mango capsules on sale at the bodega near his apartment in New York, after the company announced plans to limit the sales of its website. A pack of four capsules, which sells for $ 15.99 online, also sold at a lower price in the store – $ 25.
"When he was still sold," he said, "it caused skepticism."
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