Public Perceptions and Discussions of the US Food and Drug Administration's JUUL Ban Policy on Twitter: Observational Study

Abstract

Background: On June 23, 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a JUUL ban policy to ban all vaping and electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) products sold by the Juul Labs.Objective: This study aimed to understand public perceptions and discussions of this policy using Twitter data.Methods: Using Twitter streaming API, 17,007 tweets potentially related to the JUUL ban policy were collected between June 22, 2022, and July 25, 2022. Based on 2,600 hand-coded tweets, a deep-learning model (RoBERTa) was trained to classify all tweets into pro-policy, anti-policy, and neutral categories. A deep learning model (M3 model) was used to estimate basic demographics (such as age and gender) of Twitter users. Furthermore, major topics were identified using latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) modeling. A logistic regression model was used to examine the association of different Twitter users with their attitudes toward the policy.Results: Among 10,480 tweets related to the JUUL ban policy, there were similar proportions of pro-policy and anti-policy tweets (26.50% vs. 25.44%). Major pro-policy topics include "JUUL cause youth addition," "market surge of JUUL," and "health effects of JUUL." In contrast, major anti-policy topics include "cigarette should be banned instead of JUUL," "against the irrational policy," and "emotional catharsis." Twitter users at an older age (over 29) were more likely to be pro-policy (positive toward the JUUL ban policy) than those at a younger age (below 29). Conclusions:Our study showed that the public showed different responses to the JUUL ban policy, which varies depending on the demographic characteristics of Twitter users. Our findings could provide valuable information to the FDA for future ecigarette and other tobacco product regulations.