Very Few Adult Smokers Use JUUL as a Smoking Cessation Aid

JUUL claims its target customer base is adult smokers (rather than youth), but new research shows that the share of adult smokers who have tried to quit in the past year who used JUUL as a quit method is extremely small.

A study by the Truth Initiative

A new study from the Truth Initiative published in Tobacco Control [1] found that among adult smokers who tried to quit in the past year:

• 1.1 % used JUUL only;
• 5.6 % used other e-cigarettes alone;
• 10.1 % used nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).

For former smokers who quit within the past four years:

• 2.2 % reported using only JUUL;
• 10.3 % used only TRN;
• 6.9 % used other e-cigarettes;
• 1.4 % of former smokers reported using JUUL in combination with other methods, including TSN and other e-cigarettes.

Young people, the core target of flavored electronic cigarettes

Research highlights that few adult smokers in the United States are using e-cigarettes to quit smoking, while millions of young people continue to use them: "Available since June 2015 in the United States, Juul has become a hit. It is the best-selling e-cigarette among all ages, representing 72.9% of the market (Nielsen data-September 2018)" [2].

Flavored e-cigarettes like JUUL continue to fuel youth smoking: Recent data from the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that one in five high school students (19.6 %) and one in 20 middle school students (4.7 %) reported being a current e-cigarette user.3].

E-cigarettes have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a smoking cessation aid, but some smokers consider them a tool to help them quit. However, there is little evidence that these products are effective in helping people quit smoking, and their long-term health effects remain unknown.