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WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior executive at Juul Labs said his company had never wanted his electronic cigarettes to be adopted by underage teens, while legislators in the House of Representatives accused her on Thursday. to have fueled the craze for high school students.
Co-founder James Monsees testified that Juul had developed his vaping device and perfume capsules for adult smokers who wanted to quit smoking. He acknowledged statistics showing "a significant number of minor Americans who use electronic cigarettes, including Juul products".
"Juul Labs is not a big hit," Monses told members of a House subcommittee, adding that "combating the use of minors" is the number one priority of the company.
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Thursday's hearing marks the first time Juul has been summoned to Congress, despite increased scrutiny by parents, politicians and public health advocates. Federal law prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to persons under 18 years of age.
Squeezing some 180,000 documents gathered from society, House Democrats polled Monsees for questions about the first commercials and marketing that they believe led to the current wave of underage vaping in the US. American teenagers.
"We must trace the origins that led to this epidemic," said the representative of Illinois, Raja Krishnamoorthi, who chairs the Economic Subcommittee of the House Monitoring and Reform Committee.
The Democrat has convened two hearings this week after launching an investigation last month on Juul's business, technology and business practices. The private company has become a multi-billion dollar company thanks to the success of its small, discreet vaping device and its nicotine capsules.
In this photo of April 16, 2019, a woman exhale a puff of steam from a Juul pen in Vancouver, Wash (AP Photo / Craig Mitchelldyer, File)
Krishnamoorthi asked Monsees about his similarities with the original Juul device design and Marlboro cigarette packaging. He cited the minutes of a Juul board meeting in 2016 that mentioned an agreement with Philip Morris International, which sells Marlboros out of the United States, aimed at removing triangle shapes and diamond brand Juul. Monsees said Juul paid "zero dollars" under the settlement.
"There has never been any intention," said Monsees, to copy Marlboro. "The last thing we wanted was to confuse with a big tobacco company."
Last year, Altria, the parent company of the Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris USA, bought 35% of the capital of Juul.
During his testimony, Monsees reiterated Juul's earlier efforts, including closing his Facebook and Instagram pages and removing several of his flavored capsules from retail stores to keep him safe from teenagers.
Monsees said he understood the negative study of his company, but badured lawmakers that Juul's goal was "to eliminate cigarettes for good".
"It's an industry that has done badly for a very long time," said Monsees. "We are changing this from the ground up with products from innovative people and a company that is 100% committed to changing the fabric of this market."
Neither Juul nor any vaping product has been approved yet to help smokers quit.
In this photo of April 11, 2018, a high school student uses a vape device near a school campus in Cambridge, Mbadachusetts (AP Photo / Steven Senne, File)
Later in the hearing, lawmakers interviewed Juul's executive director, Ashley Gould, about documents that allegedly offered $ 10,000 to some schools for anti-vaping educational programs. According to Gould, Juul funded only six schools or youth programs and terminated the program in 2018 after learning that tobacco companies had funded similar anti-smoking programs decades ago.
Electronic cigarettes generally heat a flavored nicotine solution in an inhalable aerosol. They are generally considered less harmful than traditional paper and tobacco cigarettes and some adult smokers use them as an alternative source of nicotine.
On Wednesday, Robert Jackler, a professor at Stanford University, a specialist in tobacco advertising, testified that Juul's first promotions – including juvenile fashion models, colorful advertising and launch nights across the United States United – had imitated the tactics invented by cigarette manufacturers. Jackler said that Monsees, a Stanford alumna, had personally attributed the professor's research on tobacco advertising to shaping it for Juul marketing at a meeting last year.
Monsees told lawmakers that the comment was misinterpreted. Instead, he stated that Juul had learned about the "bad deeds" of these companies and what "should not be done" in Jackler's tobacco advertising archives.
Juul was born from the postgraduate work of Monsees and co-founder Adam Bowen, both design students at Stanford.
The rise of the company has closely followed an explosion of vaping minors. According to data from a government poll, one in five American high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past month. Juul has become a scourge in American schools with students who are out of breath in toilets, hallways and even clbadrooms.
On December 20, 2018, a file photo, Juul products are on display in a smoke shop in New York (AP Photo / Seth Wenig, File)
Katie Hill, D-Calif., Member of the Committee, stated that internal documents indicate that the company had at one point attempted to aggressively use social media to market its products, with potentially hundreds of influencers . According to Hill, influencers are social media users who have numerous online follow-ups and established credibility with their audience. She added that the company had told the subcommittee before the hearing that she was using influencers sparingly.
Monsees said he was unaware of the contracts she cited and told Hill that the company had tried "a number of different things."
The US Food and Drug Administration has been granted the power to regulate e-cigarettes in 2016, but this agency has repeatedly postponed the deadline for vaping companies to submit their products for a health check. and security. Earlier this month, a federal judge sided with public health groups that sued the FDA and ruled that vaping companies should submit their products for review here. the month of May.
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