Juul Accused of Putting 1 Million Tainted Vaping Pods Into Market
It's alleged that Juul had sold at least 1 million tainted e-liquids products in the market according to a lawsuit that was launched by the company's former senior vice president of global finance, S. Breja.
The lawsuit was filed yesterday and argues that senior management with Juul has attempted to deceive regulators and customers while on their quest for higher profits. They are alleged to have allowed the sale of 1 million tainted Juul products after the possible contamination had allegedly been brought to their attention.
Breja alleges that when he had previously attempted to raise concerns about soon-to-be expired Juul products, top management had allegedly responded with little concern, noting that half of their customers were drunk and vaping "like mo-fos" and wouldn't notice the difference in quality of the pods.
If that is how Juul truly feels about their customers then you would be likely safe to bet that a great majority of them would be happy to take their business elsewhere. For now, Juul is still one of the most popular vape options out there, reportedly holding at least 70 percent market share.
Not that long ago, the CEO of Juul stepped down as criticism over the brand's marketing practices have continued to grow, along with public worries about health-related vape issues.
Breja says that he was fired after bringing concerns to the attention of management about the contaminated pods, he admits that he attempted to voice concern about the quality of the products on multiple occasions. It was the previous CEO K. Burns who stepped down only a few weeks ago, that was alleged to have made the drunk customers comment. He claims that he never said anything close to that remark. And the company will be looking to aggressively defend itself in this lawsuit and they adamently deny the allegations being made against them.
Juul has also announced that they plan to lay off hundreds of employees at the end of this year.
Breja has alleged that it's particularly difficult for Juul to keep up with the demand for mint-flavored products and it was said to be particular batches of Mint eLiquid that were allegedly contaminated, with hundreds of thousands of them already being shipped to customers and retailers.
Previous research on mint-flavored vape pods by researchers at Duke University, discovered that some of the e-cig liquid products on the market today contain high levels of a chemical known as pulegone. This chemical has been banned as a synthetic food additive. Researchers believe this chemical might cause liver cancer if consumed in high quantities.
They discovered the chemical in a variety of mint-flavored e-cig products, in levels that were above what's considered to be a safe threshold.
For now, Juul is still under a criminal investigation over their marketing practices.
To try and battle what the state sees as a growing vape problem, they've introduced legislation that will tax vape users, because violence is the only solution they've got to resort to in their bag of tricks.
As for the recent vape-related deaths that the media continues to heavily report on, it's suggested that there isn't one common product or ingredient linking them all together. Although, for many of the cases it's alleged that the individuals were using THC vape products which were purchased off the street.
As for Juul, it's reported that there hasn't yet been any evidence linking those products to the more than 1,600 vaping-related illnesses in the United States so far.
