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A2 UP FRONT
Friday 26 July 2019

Juul exec: Never intended electronic cigarette for teens

Continued from Front “There was never any in-
tent,” to copy Marlboro,
“We must trace the origins Monsees said. “The last
that led to this epidemic,” thing we wanted was to be
said Rep. Raja Krishnamoor- confused with any major
thi of Illinois, who chairs the tobacco company.”
economic subcommittee Last year, Altria, the par-
of the House Committee ent company of Marlboro-
on Oversight and Reform. maker Philip Morris USA,
The Democrat convened bought a 35% stake in Juul.
two hearings this week af- During his testimony, Mon-
ter launching an investiga- sees reiterated past steps
tion last month into Juul’s taken by Juul, including
marketing, technology shutting down its Face-
and business practices. The book and Instagram pages
privately held company and pulling several of its
has grown into a multibil- flavored pods out of retail
lion-dollar business on the stores to keep Juuls out of
success of its small, discrete the hands of teens.
vaping device and nico- Monsees said he under-
tine pods. stands the negative scru-
Krishnamoorthi questioned tiny of his company, but as-
Monsees about what he sured lawmakers Juul’s aim
said were similarities be- is to “eliminate cigarettes
tween the design of the for good.”
original Juul device and “This is an industry that
packaging for Marlboro has done wrong for a truly
cigarettes. He cited min- long period time,” Mon-
utes from a 2016 Juul board sees said. “We are chang-
meeting that mentioned a ing that from the inside out
settlement with Philip Mor- with products delivered
ris International, which sells by innovative people and
Marlboros outside the U.S., a company that is 100% House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee chair Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.,
to remove triangle and committed to changing right, speaks as he questions JUUL Labs co-founder and Chief Product Officer James Monsees
diamond shapes from Juul the fabric of this market.” during a subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2019, on the
branding. Monsees said Neither Juul nor any vaping youth nicotine epidemic. Subcommittee ranking member Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., is at left.
Associated Press
Juul paid “zero dollars” as product is approved yet to
part of the settlement. help smokers quit. Later in the hearing, law- ers. Jackler said Monsees, a company had at one point
makers questioned Juul’s Stanford alumnus, had per- sought to aggressively use
chief administrative officer, sonally credited the profes- social media to market its
Ashley Gould, about docu- sor’s research on tobacco products, with potentially
ments they said showed advertising with shaping hundreds of social media
Juul offered $10,000 to Juul’s marketing in a meet- influencers. Influencers are
some schools for anti-vap- ing last year. social media users that
ing educational programs. Monsees told lawmakers have large online follow-
Gould said Juul only gave the comment was misin- ings and established cred-
funding to six schools or terpreted. Instead, he said ibility with their audience,
youth programs and dis- Juul had learned the “bad according to Hill. She said
continued the program actions” of those compa- the company told the sub-
in 2018 after learning that nies and what “not to do,” committee ahead of the
tobacco companies had from Jackler’s archive of hearing that it used influ-
funded similar anti-smoking tobacco advertising. encers sparingly.
programs decades ago. Juul grew out of gradu- Monsees said that he
E-cigarettes typically heat ate work by Monsees and wasn’t familiar with the
a flavored nicotine solution co-founder Adam Bowen, contracts she cited and
into an inhalable aerosol. both Stanford design stu- told Hill the company had
They are largely viewed dents. tried “a number of different
as less harmful than tradi- The company’s rise has things.”
tional paper-and-tobacco closely tracked an explo- The U.S. Food and Drug Ad-
cigarettes and some adult sion of underage vaping. ministration gained author-
smokers use them as an Last year, 1 in 5 U.S. high ity to regulate e-cigarettes
alternative source of nico- school students reported in 2016, but the agency
tine. using e-cigarettes in the last has repeatedly postponed
On Wednesday, Stanford month, according to gov- a deadline for vaping com-
University Professor Robert ernment survey figures. Juul panies to submit their prod-
Jackler, an expert in to- has become a scourge in ucts for health and safety
bacco advertising, testified U.S. schools with students review. Earlier this month,
that Juul’s early promotions vaping in restrooms, hall- a federal judge sided with
— including youthful mod- ways and even classrooms. public health groups who
els, colorful advertising and Another committee mem- sued the FDA and ruled
launch parties across the ber, Rep. Katie Hill, D-Ca- that vaping companies
U.S. — mimicked tactics pi- lif, said that internal Juul must submit their products
oneered by cigarette mak- documents indicate the for review by next May.q