'You're selling poison': Valley families, doctors welcome FDA ban on Juul
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The FDA says popular electronic cigarette company Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its tobacco and menthol-flavored cartridges.
Plus, those already on the market must be removed.
RELATED: FDA orders all Juul electronic cigarettes removed from US market
The agency says the move is due to insufficient and conflicting data regarding potentially harmful chemicals in the products.
One local doctor says it's a step in the right direction.
"It is a public health crisis because of the unknown toxicities - how harmful it is to the lungs as well as other organs. We don't know," said Fresno doctor Praveen Buddiga.
The American electronic cigarette company has been under scrutiny for many years for marketing its products to children.
Dr. Buddiga is a board-certified immunologist. He says studies show one in four high school students has used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.
"I see so much of asthma and immunological disease, especially in the teenager adolescent group and e-cigarettes have become an overwhelming problem," he said.
"You're selling poison, you're selling poison to the kids," says Clovis resident Larry Braden.
Braden smoked 30 years ago and worries for his own family.
"I have two granddaughters that I don't want to get addicted over people... who are putting on the market for them to use as a teenager," he says.
The FDA cannot and will not enforce any restrictions against consumers who own or use the products.
One local vape shop owner says the move punishes people who like Juul products, but it's not a top seller for his business any more.
"Nobody that walks into my shop is buying anything from the company Juul or anythig like that, it's really all the other companies," says owner Allie of The Spot Smoke Shop.
JUUL released a statement saying it disagrees with the FDA's findings and that it submitted data showing its products are comparable to others that have not been taken off the market.
