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by Wilson Tsai MD (Author), Jennifer Banmiller (Author)
What began as a master's thesis for two graduate students ended up as the impetus for one of the most treacherous tricks ever played on the American people and particularly on teens and young adults. Insisting that their product was a smoking cessation product, Adam Bowen and James Monsees, backed by Big Tobacco companies who saw a way back into the youth smoking market share, created the most enticing and cool E-cigarette products imaginable; not in your dreams but in your worst nightmares.The marketing was purposeful. First, through packaging, using high-tech, teen-cool, easily hidden devices called vape pens, reminiscent of Apple products, both colorful and sleek. Next, through flavorings, from bubble-gum to fruit loops to mint, specifically designed to appeal to young adults and teens. Naturally the products were promoted heavily on social media, with advertisements by celebrities and the ultra-popular, denoting a jet-set life of coolness, travel and excitement. But most disturbing and dangerous, along with chemicals and metals that aided combustion, was the amount of nicotine put into the products, often twice as much as in a traditional cigarette, almost impossible to resist becoming addicted to, especially if you were a teen or young adult. Even worse, the effect on a young person's still-developing brain, and their lungs, were treacherous, and rapid in a way not seen before. No scientific testing was done to protect the public prior to the release of these products.And in the face of all this injury and death, Juul and other E-cig companies only made minor changes to their products and methods when pressured, and even now, as the CDC declares a national vaping epidemic and every state in the US has enacted laws to protect citizens, and over 60 people have died and thousands are permanently injured, these companies continue to profit.In Statutory Vape, you'll read how easy it actually was to perpetrate such a dangerous product, about how a simple design supposedly created for one use became a public health hazard once dollars were the prize, about the lack of scientific testing prior to the release of vapes, and about what is being done now so this never happens again.
