The Cumberland County School Board last night considered joining a mass action lawsuit against JUUL Labs, a manufacturing company for electronic cigarettes. A representative of Frantz Law Group in San Diego, California spoke to board members in the meeting via Zoom. He said vaping is an issue in schools across the nation and there would be no cost for the school system to join in unless they recover financial damages. If that takes place, a fee of up to 25 percent would be assessed. School board attorney Earl Patton informed the board they have very little to lose by taking part. A motion was made by Stace Karge and seconded by Rebecca Hamby to join other school systems in the process. It passed unanimously.

The lawsuit against Juul Labs Inc. alleges the vaping brand targeted young people through advertising and failed to give warnings about health risks posed by using e-cigarettes with nicotine. It also states the electronic cigarette firms made products with nicotine that appealed to young smokers by marketing flavors such as mango and cool mint.

A government report recently said Juul was the most popular brand among high school students.

The suit also alleges Juul delivered products to underage people, failed to verify the age of buyers and violated privacy rights of minors by sending marketing material to the email addresses of those who failed age verification on the company‘s website.