Juul, Vaping, Mods, Cloudchasing. Different words that mean all the same thing: inhaling highly addictive, lung disease-inducing smoke that claims to be better than regular cigarettes.
Juul is a relatively new product, but the results are in-; this activity is not healthy for you and, in some instances- deadly. Why is it that product sales are increasing across multiple demographics, Subreddit r/vaping has 129,000 subscribers, and hashtag communities like vaping have 9.8m posts focused on the glamorous and "life-saving" aspects of vaping?
The answer is a lot easier than we would like it to be; Marketing. If you go to Juul's Website, they don't hide that this is similar to smoking. Their tag line is, "Juul was developed as an alternative to smoking."
And that is a saying that loyal consumers have held on to. One user on the subreddit R/Juul writes, "I heard vaping can cause COPD but then I also hear it's a lot less harmful than smoking." There are thousands of discussion boards mentioning the harmful effects of vaping quickly followed with the disclaimer that it's better than smoking.
Who cares if vaping has proven to cause: bronchiolitis obliterans, lipoid pneumonia, or collapsed lungs? According to companies like Juul Labs, it's better than smoking.
On Juul.com, they have a whole page dedicated to celebrating the lives they've saved from the evil cigarette companies. With their featured user sharing, " One puff from Juul and I was off cigarettes forever."
Of course, Juul isn't sharing that this outcome is to be expected as they triple the amount of nicotine a user is inhaling. Juul also fails to highlight the user's health; in fact, Juul rarely mentions any health results. They pat themselves on the back that they got these people off cigarettes and conveniently leave out the outbreak of lung disease the cdc links to their product.
So when you ask one of these message boards, forums, or your little cousin over facetime, "Do you know why vaping is actually bad for you?" the answer isn't an answer. It's an evasion of responsibility and legal culpability heavily promoted by Juul: "It's better than smoking."
