Southern Tier counties will get $4.5 million from settlement in youth vaping epidemic

Jeff Murray, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin
·2 min read

Southern Tier counties and boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES) will receive millions of dollars from a $462 million multistate settlement with JUUL Labs Inc. for its role in the youth vaping epidemic that officials say led to a dangerous rise in underage e-cigarette use nationwide.

State Attorney General Letitia James announced New York will receive a total of $112.7 million through the settlement, which will be distributed to every county and BOCES statewide.

More than $4.5 million of that money will benefit Southern Tier counties, James said.

"Young New Yorkers have been preyed on by big tech and big tobacco companies that seek to profit by pushing addictive products to children," she said in a Friday news release. "The settlement I secured with JUUL will help turn the tide on the youth vaping epidemic by providing new resources to Southern Tier schools and communities to combat vaping and ensuring JUUL will end its deceptive marketing."

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Here's how the funds will be distributed to Southern Tier counties:

  • Broome County: $596,588.

  • Chemung County: $509,170.

  • Chenango County: $351,784.

  • Delaware County: $315,519.

  • Schuyler County: $216,589.

  • Steuben County: $450,048.

  • Tioga County: $323,674.

  • Tompkins County: $473,932.

Here's how BOCES funds will be handed out:

  • Broome-Delaware-Tioga BOCES: $464,006.

  • Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES: $184,030.

  • Greater Southern Tier BOCES: $439,444.

  • Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES: $183,380.

After JUUL launched its e-cigarette products in 2015, it led to a national outbreak of severe vaping-related illnesses, James said.

In 2019, she sued the company for what she claimed was deceptive and misleading marketing that glamorized vaping and targeted young people. That led to the agreement with JUUL in 2023.

The settlement funds will be used for public education campaigns, community, school and university-based anti-vaping programs, and public health research into e-cigarette use among young people, along with the effectiveness of anti-vaping campaigns, among other efforts.

In addition, the settlement calls for JUUL to take several steps, including refraining from any marketing that targets youth, limiting the amount of retail and online purchases an individual can make, performing regular retail compliance checks at 5% of New York’s retail stores that sell JUUL’s products, and excluding product placement in virtual reality systems.

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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: New York's settlement with JUUL will mean millions for Southern Tier