E-cigarette pods and juice has become the new teenage epidemic, and Juul Labs has taken action because of it. Vaping seems to have taken over the threat of the traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes and chewing tobacco.

According to The New York Times, Juul Labs announced Tuesday that it would suspend sales of most of its flavored e-cigarette pods in retail stores and discontinue its social media promotions. Juul Labs has more then 70% of the e-cigarette market in the United States and they have marketed their products towards smokers trying to quit, but they have had to shoulder a lot of the blame for a new public health problem: nicotine addiction among nonsmoking teens.

This is a serious issue for the upcoming generations of teens. Now instead of worrying about traditional tobacco products, there is worry over products that are supposed to help smokers quit.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 14% of tenth graders are more likely to use e-cigarettes while 6.3% of them are likely to use cigarettes. Also, boys between 8-12th grades are two times more likely to use e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes are marketed for people trying to quit tobacco products by fulfilling their nicotine withdrawals with a healthier solution, but there is a large portion of children picking up e-cigarettes without ever smoking a regular cigarette. No matter the motives Juul took a step towards ending this problem, but the seeds have already been planted. Just like regular tobacco products, e-cigarettes are not going anywhere they will still continue to be a problem with teens.

Steps can be taken to reduce this problem just like the many steps toward ending the use of tobacco cigarettes in the United States. Slogans such as “be the generation that ends smoking” have been circulating frequently. We will most likely see campaigns against e-cigarettes in the upcoming future due to this health issue among teenagers.