FDA’s Juul Inquiry Found Consumers Had 2,600 Health Complaints

Juul Labs Inc. received roughly 2,600 complaints about adverse health effects related to its e-cigarette during its first three years in operation, with customers citing issues such as burning sensations in the lungs, blistered lips and vomiting, according to an internal report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The report, which was released to Bloomberg News under the federal Freedom of Information Act, contains few details about the anonymous consumers’ complaints or health outcomes. It cites only one “serious adverse event,” in which a woman reported that her throat bled after she used a Juul product.

The rate of complaints received per Juul pods sold “is very low,” said Austin Finan, a Juul spokesman. “We take product safety very seriously and implement stringent quality control measures to ensure the safety of all our products.”

The customer complaints were contained in a Juul Labs database that the FDA reviewed as part of a high-profile inspection of the San Francisco firm in September 2018. While the company has said its mission is to provide “adult smokers with a real alternative to cigarettes,” federal regulators in 2018 began taking steps to stem the proliferation of its products, citing fears of an epidemic of regular nicotine use among teens. In addition to staging sting operations to catch retailers selling Juuls to minors, FDA officials conducted the inspection at Juul’s headquarters. The agency’s inquiry remains ongoing.