Juul Papers on Allegedly Contaminated Pods Sought by House

(Bloomberg) -- A House subcommittee is demanding that Juul Labs Inc. turn over documents concerning potential contaminated pods that the e-cigarette company may have sold.

In a letter dated Thursday, the panel demanded Juul turn over all documents referring to any potentially or allegedly contaminated e-liquid from supplier Alternative Ingredients Inc. or other sources, as well as any documents related to Juul’s internal investigation of contaminated e-liquid pods or any underlying manufacturing issue.

The letter was sent by Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the subcommittee on economic and consumer policy, part of the House Oversight Committee. The subcommittee has been investigating e-cigarette use by teenagers.

The subcommittee is requesting documents and information “about disturbing reports” that Juul “may have knowingly sold nearly one million contaminated Juul pods,” Krishnamoorthi said in the letter.

A similar letter was sent by the panel to the president of Alternative Ingredients, demanding documents related to any potentially contaminated products it may have sold to Juul.

Representatives for Juul and Alternative Ingredients didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The letters ask that the companies produce the documents by Nov. 21.

The increased scrutiny of possible contamination of Juul pods comes as the number of cases of a mysterious vaping-related lung illness in the U.S. keeps growing. As of Nov. 5, there have been 2,051 cases reported, with 39 deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. Most of the illnesses have been linked to using THC vaping products.

In a lawsuit last month, a former Juul executive, Siddharth Breja, accused the company of intentionally selling contaminated nicotine pods and refusing to recall them after learning about the problem.

“Juul has sent to market, at a minimum, approximately one million mint-flavored e-cigarette nicotine pods that it admits were contaminated,” Breja said in the suit. Juul refused to issue a safety warning about the contaminated pods, he said.

Juul has said Breja’s claims had no merit and the company already investigated the issue and determined its product met all applicable specifications.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett, Mark Schoifet

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