In the United States, the Juul Labs brand has seized the e-cigarette market to the delight of young people. While the company plans to expand internationally, the scientific community is worried.
In France, as in the United States, the electronic cigarette is very popular with young people. But while in France, adolescents most often combine traditional tobacco and e-cigarettes, across the Atlantic, only the latter is on the rise. And the leader in this area is called Juul Labs, reveals Bloomberg in an article dated July 29.
According to the economic newspaper, this brand, created in 2015 in San Francisco by two design graduates from Stanford University, would recently hold 68% of the American market and now accumulate 245 million dollars in turnover. A success that is only just beginning since according to the Well Fargo bank, the company should grow by 25% in Uncle Sam’s country this year again.
An Apple-style approach
How to explain such enthusiasm? With his e-cigarette resembling a USB stick in which a liquid containing nicotine is inserted for 35 dollars, “Juul has captured the interest of Millennials with an Apple-like approach”, explains Bonnie Herzog, cigarette analyst at Wells Fargo, quoted by The echoes.
While 6% of American terminal students reported smoking cigarettes in 2015 against 20% in 2000, the product marketed by Juul is more reminiscent of a sleek high-tech device than a conventional cigarette. In addition, the many sweet aromas offered by Juul (mango, crème brûlée or mint) seem more glamorous to teenagers.
“For adults who want to switch to a better alternative”
This is why, many American scientists today accuse Juul of inciting the vices of young people who would otherwise never have thought of smoking. In 2017, a study in the American Journal of Medicine found that non-smoking young adults were four times more likely to start smoking regular cigarettes after vaping for 18 months.
But Juul defends his case tooth and nail ensuring that it does not target adolescents but only “adults who want to switch from combustible cigarettes to a better alternative”. Thus, on the home page of its site, appears a banner indicating that it is necessary “to be at least 21 years old to buy its products” and that “it is illegal to sell them or resell them to minors”. The user will even be able to discover a category entitled “Our mission” where Juul claims to have the goal of “improving the lives of the billion adults who smoke in the world”.
Doctors worried about young people
Pinned first by the scientific community, the brand was then confronted by the American public services. In April, the regulators of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) asked the company to send it internal documents on its marketing strategy towards young people and studies on the addictive potential of its products. In an attempt to reassure the authorities, the company has taken several steps.
It began by including on its packaging, the mention “the alternative for adult smokers” and announced that it would spend $ 30 million to combat use by adolescents over the next three years. Then, Thursday, July 12, it launched a version with 40% less nicotine for two of its flavors, Mint and Virginia, available from August.
A sword in the water according to Eric Donny, an expert from the University of Pittsburgh questioned on the subject by the site The verge. Indeed, according to the scientist, to be less addictive, a nicotine compound should be reduced by 85 to 95%.
For the majority of French people, vaping helps with smoking cessation
And if Juul Laabs currently only exists in the United States, the brand is in the process of fundraising in order to expand internationally, particularly in Asia and Europe. In France, a culturally smoker country, tobacco remains a real social problem. However, the prevalence of daily smoking in the metropolis fell sharply between 2016 and 2017, from 29.4% to 26.9%.
And, according to an Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting survey carried out for Le Figaro and France Info to 1030 people via the Internet on May 30 and 31, “vaping is a much more important factor than all the other dimensions of public health policies against tobacco”. Indeed, for more than two thirds of French people questioned, the electronic cigarette is indeed an aid to smoking cessation.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
“The electronic cigarette cannot simply be judged to be beneficial or harmful”, explained the American scientist David Eaton, Dean of the University of Washington, in a report published in the United States earlier this year on the subject. “In certain circumstances, the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes on the health of adolescents and young adults who do not smoke tobacco probably justify concerns,” he explained. But, in the case of “smokers who use electronic cigarettes to quit smoking, vaping offers a way to reduce smoking, which is harmful to health.”
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