The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to order Juul Labs Inc. to cease sales of its e-cigarettes Wednesday.
The order comes after a nearly two-year investigation and review of data provided by the vaping company, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. The marketing denial order would impact the company’s tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes, the outlet continued.
Juul voluntarily stopped selling its flavored vape cartridges in the U.S. in 2019 shortly after accusations that it was marketing the products to teenagers. (RELATED: White House Deletes FDA E-Cigarette Regulations)
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The FDA banned sales of all fruity and mint flavored vape cartridges in 2020, citing “epidemic levels of youth use of e-cigarettes” as the core reason for the decision in a press release.
“By prioritizing enforcement against the products that are most widely used by children, our action today seeks to strike the right public health balance by maintaining e-cigarettes as a potential off-ramp for adults using combustible tobacco while ensuring these products don’t provide an on-ramp to nicotine addiction for our youth,” Department of Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar said at the time, according to the press release.
Studies into Juul cigarettes found that use of the vapes increased upwards of 30% among higher socioeconomic groups of college students, who were predominantly white over the course of just two years (2016-2018). Other research suggested that the growth in use of Juul e-cigarettes is largely found in American youth.