Lawsuit Against Juul/Altria Alleging Fraudulent Misinformation Provides Fraudulent Misinformation

Parents of a Florida teenager who became addicted to Juul havesued Juul, Altria, and Philip Morris USA based on a number of claims, including fraud, negligence, and violation of the RICO statute (the compliant ishere). Dr. Stan Glantz and Lauren Lempert provide a nicesummary of the reasoning behind the lawsuit and the specific claims being made. The case was filed on Monday in the federal district court for the middle district of Florida.The Rest of the StoryAlthough the main complaint is that the company fraudulently provided misinformation about the product, its health risks, and its addictiveness, the complaint itself provides a huge amount of misinformation and distortion of the scientific facts related to vaping and Juul. Here is a sampling of the false or completely unsupported information that is claimed in the complaint:1.Vaping causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): The lawsuit claims that " just like traditional cigarette smoke, " vaping causes COPD because it " introduces foreign substances into the lung. " There is absolutely no evidence to support this claim. Despite at least 12 years of use and prolonged vaping by millions of Americans, I ' m not aware of a single case of COPD that has been documented to be caused by vaping. While vaping does cause acute respiratory irritation, there is no evidence at this point that prolonged exposure to e-cigarette aerosol is extensive enough to cause permanent lung obstruction.2.Nicotine is a carcinogen: The law...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs