Is Juul An E-Cigarette? Juul Labs Says No, Here's Why

While the Juul device is designed to work exclusively with Juul Pod cartridges that come prefilled with liquid nicotine, Juul Labs, its manufacturer, claims that it’s “not an e-cigarette.”

“JUUL is simple and satisfying. And it’s not an e-cigarette.”

While this image shared by Juul Labs on social media refers to the Juul device as “not your average e-cigarette,” the company wrote in the tweet that accompanied it that Juul “is not an e-cigarette.” (Credit: Juul Labs via Twitter)

Explaining their reasoning, the company lists on their website the following reasons for why Juul is not an electronic cigarette:

Juuls are designed to produce “an aerosol to activate ingredients using a regulated heating element instead of using a flame to ensure consistent delivery and avoid combustion.” What this means, according to Juul Labs, is that regardless of how one inhales, “the vapor is designed to be always at, and never above, the ideal temperature.”
The device is intended to be “as easy to use as combustible products,” such as conventional cigarettes, in a bid to “make switching as convenient as possible.”
Juul Labs uses “only the highest quality manufacturing materials and flavor ingredients.”
The device “accommodates nicotine levels akin to a cigarette’s to satisfy smokers switching.”

Based on this, the Juul device is intended to be an easy to switch to alternative to conventional tobacco combustion products such as cigarettes and it produces an aerosol intended for user inhalation. This aerosol, or vapor, delivers nicotine to the user. In short, this sounds exactly like an electronic cigarette. Perhaps the only noticeable difference between it and other similar nicotine vaping devices is the fact that it doesn’t adhere to the standard e-cigarette shape, which is typically reminiscent of an ordinary cigarette in both shape and size. Instead, it looks more like a flat vape pen, or a USB stick as some have speculated.

In other words, the Juul is, for all intents and purposes, a liquid nicotine vaporizing device, but it doesn’t look like the original e-cigarettes that first gained popularity in the United States.

Dictionary.com defines an e-cigarette as “a device used to simulate the experience of smoking, having a cartridge with a heater that vaporizes liquid nicotine instead of burning tobacco.”

What do you think, is the Juul an e-cigarette or is it something else?