A previous post on this blog talked about the recent wave of lawsuits against Juul Labs. As that post explained, Juul Labs is the most famous manufacturer of electronic cigarettes, which are a form of vaping device.
As the name implies, vaping was originally supposed to be a safer medical alternative to conventional smoking. A person trying to quit could use a vaping device to inhale flavored smoke that contained nicotine but not the other toxic chemicals associated with conventional cigarettes.
Unfortunately, and thanks in part to aggressive marketing, vaping has now become a supposedly safe and socially acceptable alternative to smoking among teens and even tweens.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, are now calling in to question about whether vaping really is any safer than smoking cigarettes.
The federal agency has pointed to an outbreak of cases where otherwise healthy people developed severe coughs, chest pain, shortness of breath and other major symptoms that appear at first glance to be related to vaping.
The federal Food and Drug Administration, for its part, is now analyzing several vaping products for nicotine and other potentially harmful chemicals to determine what exactly is causing so many people to develop these severe respiratory problems.
As our previous post explained, while medical products to help people quit smoking obviously have their benefits, their manufacturers must market them accurately and must make sure that they are safe for reasonable use. When manufacturers fail to do so, victims may be able to pursue compensation for medical expenses and other damages, possibly included punitive damages, through the appropriate cause of action.