On April 20, 2020, partners Alan Holcomb and Brett Turnbull of Turnbull, Cain & Holcomb, LLC, along with the Chicago, Illinois firm of TorHoerman Law, LLC, filed what is thought to be the first Juul vaping lung injury case in Georgia state court.

Our client is a 38-year-old former athlete who developed a severe and progressive lung disease named "E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI)" as a result of his use of Juul products for approximately two to three years. EVALI is a newly-identified lung injury, marked by symptoms of shortness of breath, fever and chills, cough, vomiting, headache, dizziness, rapid heartrate and chest pain. A chest x-ray or CT scan is often used to diagnose the disease.

Our client alleges that his use of e-cigarettes and JUULpods designed and manufactured by Juul Labs, Inc. caused his lung injury, and that the Juul products he used contained or emitted harmful chemicals known to cause lung injury, such as diacetyl, 2,3-Pentanedione, acetaldehyde, and acetoin. These are all chemicals that have been linked to the irreversible lung disease known as "popcorn lung." 

The Complaint alleges that Juul and other e-cigarette manufacturers followed Big Tobacco's "playbook" in hooking young users and new users to their products. The Complaint alleges that our client was never warned about the dangers of Juul e-cigarettes and that these Juul products were defectively designed and manufactured in that they are unreasonably dangerous and offer little to no utility to the general public.

As partner Alan Holcomb explained: "There's this misconception that vaping is a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes, but these devices are simply nicotine delivery systems just like traditional tobacco cigarettes. Once you fall for the marketing campaigns and try it, you don't stand much of a chance. Our client, a former athlete, now faces a disease for which there is no cure. He has a long, frustrating and painful road ahead of him."

About Turnbull, Cain & Holcomb

Turnbull, Cain & Holcomb is a nationally-recognized personal injury law firm with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama. The firm has achieved success throughout the United States, including large jury verdicts in numerous states and in a wide variety of areas, including trucking litigation, products liability, medical malpractice, and car accidents. Our lawyers are consistently ranked in Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Georgia Trend, and other prestigious ranking directories.

Sources:

https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/evali

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2016-111/pdfs/2016-111-chap4.pdf

https://thelawcenter.com/personal-injury/articles/turnbull-law-firm-p-c-and-torhoerman-law-llc-team-up-sue-juul-labs-alleging-former-athlete-suffered-permanent-lung-damage-from-vaping/