At Juul Labs, our mission is to transition adult smokers away from cigarettes while combating underage use. We believe that, backed by science and evidence, a world without combustible cigarettes is feasible because adult smokers will have either quit altogether or have transitioned to smoke-free and potentially less harmful alternatives. Reducing combustible tobacco use can significantly reduce the preventable death and premature disease associated with smoking. In order to accomplish this, we need to have open and honest conversations and engage with the public about our company and the category as a whole.
Our company has a strict policy when it comes to communicating through social media. We recognize that social media can be an important channel for adult smokers to access information about alternatives to combustible cigarettes. However, data show that some social media can become a source of product exposure to those who are underage. In order to immediately address those concerns and to take the time to better understand how to appropriately engage with the adult public, Juul Labs decided in November 2018 to exit social media platforms in the U.S., including Facebook and Instagram. Since that time, we have maintained a number of essentially-dormant social media accounts, including X/Twitter account (@juulvapor), LinkedIn, and an age-gated YouTube channel for non-promotional purposes.
For some time, the company has refrained from posting anything on any of these accounts. But we believe now is the time to provide our followers with information regarding the company’s mission, its news, and the science and evidence that support our efforts to advance tobacco harm reduction. We will maintain a strict prohibition on the marketing of our products on any social media platform.
So, moving forward, those who follow us on LinkedIn can expect to find posts ranging from:
-- News and announcements about the company;
-- Publicly available data regarding vapor products and the category; and
-- Highlights of our company culture, mission, and values.
To this end, we were encouraged to see in the recently-released 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey results another year of continued declines in underage use of vapor products in general, and JUUL products specifically. Overall, the government data show that underage use of vapor products experienced a “significant decline” in 2024, according to the CDC, with underage use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) at the lowest levels in more than ten years.
The 2024 NYTS data shows a 98% decline in underage JUUL usage rates since its peak in 2019, with fewer than 1% of all middle and high school students in 2024 reporting past 30-day use of JUUL products.
For additional information, please see our full statement on the Juul Labs newsroom: https://lnkd.in/gYpDHGii