Butler Area School District is the latest school district to join a national lawsuit against JUUL Labs Inc. and tobacco companies for allegedly targeting children with marketing campaigns for their products.

The school board unanimously voted Monday night to join the lawsuit against the California-based maker of JUUL e-cigarettes.

"This is another societal issue we have to deal with. Vaping is as much or more of a health risk as cigarettes," said Al Vavro, president of the Butler Area School Board. "We're trying to do what's right for kids. That's our responsibility."

District solicitor Tom King, with Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham in Butler, said a 2019 survey of district students revealed widespread use of e-cigarettes. He added the board will join the suit to seek compensation for disruptions to education, creating an anti-vaping program and possibly buying vapor detectors to detect e-cigarette vapors, which normal smoke detectors cannot

“Nearly 50 percent of Butler Area students by 12th grade have engaged in vaping in some sort or another,” he said. “We all know the health ramifications of smoking and vaping. The ramifications to school districts are tremendous.”

The survey shows that some elementary school students use e-cigarettes, he said.

Company marketing campaigns have reversed the positive outcome of school smoking cessation programs, King added.

Defendants named in the suit include Altria, a conglomerate that owns tobacco companies Philip Morris USA and Nu Mark LLC, and JUULl.

“They all have engaged in a conspiracy to market tobacco products to minors,” King said.

The suit was initiated by the Frantz Law Group of San Diego. Frantz will consolidate the cases and file them in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, which handles suits filed from multiple federal districts.

King said Frantz asked his law firm to assist Pennsylvania school districts in joining the suit. He said four districts from eastern Pennsylvania have already sued the companies and those suits have been forwarded to Frantz.

This is an excerpt of a story that will appear in Wednesday's Butler Eagle. To read the full story, make sure to pick up the paper or subscribe online.