E-cig maker Juul Labs, headquartered in San Francisco, will end its support for a ballot measure that would roll back the city’s ordinance that effectively bans e-cigarette sales in the city. The news came ahead of two more deaths on Tuesday suspected of being related to vaping.
In a statement, Juul said it “recently announced a broad review of the company’s policies in order to responsibly lead the industry.”
“As we continue that review, the company announced it will cease active support of Prop C in San Francisco.”
Prop C would repeal the e-cigarette sales restrictions that were passed unanimously by the city’s board of supervisors. The ballot initiative is opposed by many health groups and organizations working to end e-cigarette sales to kids.
San Francisco became the first US city to ban e-cigarettes sales in an effort to help “curb the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Shamann Walton had said.
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The ordinance says “no person shall sell or distribute an electronic cigarette to a person in San Francisco” unless that product has undergone premarket review by the US Food and Drug Administration. To date, none have.
According to the measure, the policy becomes effective 30 days after being signed, and becomes operative six months after that.
Juul said it remains “as committed as ever to our goal of improving the lives of the world’s one billion smokers while keeping our products out of the hands of youth through strong category-wide regulation.”
The company’s newly-appointed CEO, K.C. Crosthwaite, said Juul was committed to working with regulators and policymakers and earning “the trust of the societies in which we operate.”
“That includes inviting an open dialogue, listening to others and being responsive to their concerns,” Crosthwaite said in a statement.
Juul announced last week that Crosthwaite, who had been chief growth officer at tobacco company Altria (MO), a major investor in Juul, would replace former CEO Kevin Burns.
Two more deaths reported
Virginia and New Jersey health officials on Tuesday announced they had each confirmed a vaping-related death, bringing the nationwide total to 16.
The Virginia death, an adult from the state’s southwest region, was initially reported by Cone Health in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 26. The New Jersey death, an adult from the northern part of the state, was reported to its health department in August.
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“I am deeply saddened to announce the first death of a Virginia resident related to this outbreak,” Virginia’s state health commissioner, Dr. M. Norman Oliver, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fourteen other deaths have been identified nationwide as part of the multistate outbreak of lung injury associated with vaping: two in California, two in Kansas, two in Oregon, and one each in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Nebraska.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that the agency is aware of 805 confirmed and probable cases of lung injury associated with e-cigarette use in 46 states and the US Virgin Islands.
A specific cause of the nationwide outbreak remains unknown, but health officials are zeroing in on potential clues — including the prevalence of THC-containing products among cases.
