Book contents
- Public Nuisance
- Public Nuisance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Historical Context of Private and Public Nuisance at Law and Equity
- 2 Shifting Mass Tort Theories in the 1990s and the Judicial Resistance to the Expansion of Public Nuisance Liability
- 3 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine
- 4 Litigating Public Nuisance Claims
- 5 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine: Defenses
- 6 Expanding Public Nuisance
- 7 Environmental Contamination, PCBs, and Climate Change as Public Nuisance Harms
- 8 Opioids as Public Nuisance Health and Welfare Harm
- 9 Firearms Violence as a Public Nuisance
- 10 E-Cigarettes and Vaping as a Public Nuisance Harm
- 11 Evaluating the Competing Arguments Regarding the Contemporary Use of Public Nuisance in Mass Tort Litigation
- Conclusion
- Index
10 - E-Cigarettes and Vaping as a Public Nuisance Harm
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2023
- Public Nuisance
- Public Nuisance
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Historical Context of Private and Public Nuisance at Law and Equity
- 2 Shifting Mass Tort Theories in the 1990s and the Judicial Resistance to the Expansion of Public Nuisance Liability
- 3 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine
- 4 Litigating Public Nuisance Claims
- 5 Expanding Public Nuisance Doctrine: Defenses
- 6 Expanding Public Nuisance
- 7 Environmental Contamination, PCBs, and Climate Change as Public Nuisance Harms
- 8 Opioids as Public Nuisance Health and Welfare Harm
- 9 Firearms Violence as a Public Nuisance
- 10 E-Cigarettes and Vaping as a Public Nuisance Harm
- 11 Evaluating the Competing Arguments Regarding the Contemporary Use of Public Nuisance in Mass Tort Litigation
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Chapter 10 examines the recent mass tort litigation pursued on public nuisance grounds and modeled after the succesful opioid public nuisance litigation. After the 1999 Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco company defendants, the tobacco companies ceased marketing cigarettes and tobacco products; cigarette smoking dropped precipitously thoughout the United States. In 2006 JUUL introduced e-cigarette vaping products and marketed these extensively to school-aged youth. This marketing program resulted in massive e-cigarette use by students, which precipitated a crisis among school districts and muncipalities having to deal with vaping in schools. Plaintiffs attorneys, allied with school districts and muncipalities, instituted massive litigation throughout the country. Modeled on the opioid litigation, federal e-cigarette litigation was consoldated in an MDL in the Northern District of California. This chapter chronicles the development and resolution of the e-cigarette public nuisance litigation, resulting in one bellwether trial and ultimately numerous settelements with JUUL and Altria, extending through 2023. The case study illustrates that a public nuisance claim may induce defendants to settle.
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- Information
- Public NuisanceThe New Mass Tort Frontier, pp. 211 - 229Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023