A new anonymous texting bot program is aimed at helping children, teenagers and young adults quit using Juuls and other e-cigarettes.
Developed by the large anti-smoking and public health non-profit the Truth Initiative, the text-based coaching is being integrated into the group's This Is Quitting and BecomeAnEx online quitting aids.
The need for adolescent-focused programs is dire, according to a slew of recent studies and declarations of a youth vaping 'epidemic' from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Surgeon General.
FDA Commissioner Gottlieb called for cessation drugs for teens last month, but in the mean time the Truth Initiative's program hopes to help fill that void with text-coaching designed with teens in mind.
Truth Initiative's new program texts encouragement geared toward teenagers who are trying to quit vaping in general - but focuses on the addictive Juul in particular
Between 2017 and 2018, the number of high school students using e-cigarettes double, according to a University of Michigan study published in December.
The rise of vaping was the steepest single-year change documented by the survey in all of its 44 years - a greater increase than has ever been seen in teen drinking, smoking or drug use.
E-cigarettes were first marketed as smoking cessation tools themselves, but for the teen population they'e taken a quick, dark turn, fueled by the enormously popular USB-like device, the Juul.
The devices, which heat high-concentration nicotine 'e-liquids' into vapor are still so new that we don't fully understand their health effects.
Early research on them suggests that e-cigs likely have equally disastrous effects on cardiovascular health as cigarettes do.
Other studies suggest that terpenes used to flavor e-liquids - especially the sweet ones that have enticed so many young users to the products - may be carcinogenic.
The results of studies on whether or not e-cigs drive teens to take up smoking have yielded a mixed bag of results, but, tellingly, many young adult vapers also smoke cigarettes.
So last month, FDA Commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb deemed the hold of vaping over American youth
