Kaine said teen vaping is "an emergency." | Photo courtesy U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine
On Monday, speaking at a Henrico County library just two miles from Altria Group Inc.’s corporate headquarters, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine held a roundtable discussion about the teen vaping epidemic — a problem largely fueled by Juul e-cigarettes, a product in which Philip Morris USA’s parent company holds a 35% stake.
“It’s an emergency facing young people,” Kaine said Monday, talking with a small group of youth health advocates during the event at Henrico’s Libbie Mill Library. “The progress that we've made in wiping out youth smoking has been completely turned around because of vaping and e-cigarettes.”
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared youth e-cigarette use an epidemic in December, repeatedly citing Juul by name in his advisory statement. The move came a month after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration released a report stating that e-cigarette use among high school students increased 78% from 2017 to 2018.
