By Sara Gentzler
The Olympian
Thurston County has filed a lawsuit against manufacturers of vaping products, saying their marketing has targeted youth, increased youth vaping and nicotine addiction rates, and reversed progress made in combating youth cigarette smoking.
The lawsuit, filed April 1 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma, argues that these companies have compelled youth into nicotine addiction and forced local governments to spend money and resources combating the resulting crisis.
In the suit, the county seeks an unknown amount of money and injunctive relief, including “abatement of the public health crisis” caused by the companies’ conduct.
On the tail of two decades of reduction in youth tobacco use and nicotine addiction, vaping rates have climbed in recent years across the country, the complaint reads, and Thurston County is no exception.
From 2016 to 2018, the number of Thurston County high school seniors using e-cigarettes rose from 23% to 32%, which is higher than the national average, according to the complaint. E-cigarette use by Thurston County tenth graders rose from 14% in 2016 to 21% in 2018.
Vaping products use an “e-liquid” that may contain nicotine and other ingredients, such as flavoring, according to the FDA. That liquid is heated to create an aerosol a user inhales.
One concern for local public health officials is that, especially considering last year’s national outbreak of vaping-related lung injury, the long-term impacts of vaping on the youth in Thurston County are unknown, according to Schelli Slaughter, director of Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
Youth become addicted, and it’s difficult for anyone to quit, Slaughter told The Olympian in a phone interview.
“What we do know about the impacts of vaping on youth is that their brains are still developing and there’s a lot of evidence of long-term harm to the health of people who vape,” Slaughter said. “And our Thurston County youth were specifically targeted — told this was safe for them, fun and safe.”
Among the defendants in the litigation are e-cigarette manufacturer JUUL Labs, Inc. and Altria Group, Inc., which operates tobacco giants such as Philip Morris USA and has held a 35% stake in JUUL since making a $12.8 billion investment in 2018, according to its website.
Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim said the lawsuit is about more than recovering money.
“The real focus of this is to try to bust that myth that seems to still be out there that vaping is a safe alternative to smoking,” Tunheim said. “It’s just not. And the data tells us that it’s not. At the same time we’re trying to recover money to help us fight this issue, we’re also just trying to get that message out that vaping is not a safe alternative to smoking.”
Other local governments in Washington and elsewhere are filing similar lawsuits and are represented by the same firm, Keller Rohrback. According to the firm’s website, it has filed similar cases for King County, Seattle School District No. 1, Skagit County, Whatcom County, and several other plaintiffs.
Tunheim likened this to a lawsuit the county filed against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors in 2018. That case was relocated to a judge in Ohio who’s handling consolidated lawsuits from all over the country.
Similarly, vaping cases have been consolidated before a judge in San Francisco, Alison Gaffney, associate attorney for Keller Rohrback, said. The expectation is that Thurston County’s case will be transferred to that consolidated proceeding.
