SAN DIEGO – The Poway Unified School District is the latest California school district to file a lawsuit against vaping company JUUL, alleging that the company has created a public nuisance within their community.
In joining 14 other California school districts, Poway’s lawsuit attacks JUUL for marketing its e-cigarettes and related products to children, a topic that has recently been considered an epidemic throughout the country.
Poway's suit was among five new lawsuits filed last month against the San Francisco-based vaping company, with a number of similar lawsuits being filed by school districts throughout the state just weeks earlier as the heavy push to ban vaping tobacco products continues to gain momentum.
The lawsuits allege negligence and nuisance, claiming JUUL's advertising methods and campaigns are targeting the youth and have caused an e-cigarette "epidemic" that has "severely impacted" the school districts by interfering "with normal school operations," according to CBS8.
The Record received a statement from a JUUL Labs spokesperson responding to the lawsuit:
"We remain focused on resetting the vapor category in the U.S. and earning the trust of society by working cooperatively with regulators, attorneys general, public health officials and other stakeholders to combat underage use and convert adult smokers from combustible cigarettes. As part of that process, we stopped the sale of flavored pods other than tobacco and menthol in November; halted our television, print and digital product advertising; refrained from lobbying the administration on its draft flavor guidance; and support the final policy. Our customer base is the world’s 1 billion adult smokers, and we do not intend to attract underage users. To the extent these cases allege otherwise, they are without merit."
Serving about 36,000 students, Poway Unified is the third-largest school district in San Diego County. According to the lawsuit, the district saw a 1,000% increase in tobacco violations between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school year.