E-cigarette giant Juul announced last week that they would end the sale of their mint vaping pods, a flavor that has been extremely popular among young e-cigarette users. This news comes after Juul’s announcement last month that the company would stop selling most of their flavored pods, such as mango and cucumber. Juul will now only be selling three flavors: classic tobacco, Virginia tobacco, and menthol. A study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, released before Juul’s announcement last week, found that 10th and 12th grade Juul users listed mint as their favorite flavor, while 8th graders favored mango followed by mint. Menthol was the least popular flavor chosen by the adolescents, with less than 6 percent of all grades choosing it as their favorite.
This news comes on the heels of a September announcement by the FDA and the current administration that claimed that a national ban on flavored vaping products would soon take place. However, since that announcement two months ago, there has yet to be an official update on the specifics of this national ban, generating questions from the masses on if mint and menthol products would be included in this ban. Health officials believe that if menthol flavors remain on the market, adolescent e-cigarette users will merely switch to this flavor as opposed to quitting vaping entirely.
The country is still in panic during this vaping epidemic, with 39 deaths and 2,051 cases of severe lung disease linked to using e-cigarettes as of November 5th. Although the CDC has seemingly linked many of these cases to THC vaping, some of the patients and victims vaped nicotine exclusively, therefore leaving the cause of all these cases up in the air.