The Food and Drug Administration’s ban on Juul vaping products could be especially good news for the health of Appalachians, according to a West Virginia University researcher. (WVU Photo)
The Food and Drug Administration’s ban on Juul vaping products could be especially good news for the health of Appalachians, according to a West Virginia University researcher.
Research by Sunil Sharma—section chief of pulmonary/critical care and sleep medicine at the WVU School of Medicine—suggests that e-cigarette users in rural Appalachia tend to develop worse lung injuries than their urban counterparts.
But Juul isn’t the only manufacturer of vaping devices, and according to WVU School of Medicine professor Mark Olfert, this ban—laudable though it may be—risks futility without follow-up measures.
Quotes
“Like other communities nationwide, Appalachia has been hit hard by the e-cigarette/ vaping epidemic. However, compared to other regions, the Appalachian community has suffered more severe respiratory failure and worse outcomes. We welcome this move by the FDA to ban Juul products and hope this translates to fewer of our children and young adults falling victim to this deadly habit.” – Sunil Sharma, section chief of pulmonary/critical care and sleep medicine at the WVU School of Medicine.
“The current ban on Juul is a good first step by the FDA, but Juul is only one of many e-cigarette manufacturers in the market. Many countries around the world have already banned e-cigarettes or require a prescription to obtain one. One can only hope that similar bans on other brands come soon as their products are reviewed by the FDA, or at least until there is compelling evidence that vaping will not harm Americans’ health—especially the future health of our youth. If the only outcome here is the demise of Juul, we can expect history to show it was a futile effort to protect American citizens.” – Mark Olfert, faculty member in the WVU Center for Inhalation Toxicology and professor of exercise physiology in the WVU School of Medicine.
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-WVU-
se/06/27/22
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