Perchloroethylene, which is used in dry cleaning among other purposes, is toxic when inhaled. The US EPA previously determined that it poses unreasonable risk of injury to human health and is required under the Toxic Substances Control Act to ensure that “the chemical no longer presents [unreasonable] risk.” EPA has now proposed to ban allContinue reading “EPA needs to expand proposed perchloroethylene rule”
Author Archives: Stanton Glantz
Improving EPA’s cumulative risk assessment procedures
In response to President Biden’s 2021 Executive Orders to advance racial equity, increase resources for underserved communities, and address the climate crisis, the Environmental Protection Agency has developed and released “Draft Proposed Principles of Cumulative Risk Assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act.” While the draft includes many good points, in some ways it willContinue reading “Improving EPA’s cumulative risk assessment procedures”
Simple ways FDA could improve review of new tobacco product applications
One area of broad agreement between industry and public health at FDA’s recent “listening session” on the Center for Tobacco Product’s pending strategic plan was that FDA should be more transparent about the standards it uses for judging new tobacco products. My UCS colleagues and I submitted this public comment listing several specific ways thatContinue reading “Simple ways FDA could improve review of new tobacco product applications”
CTP should finally set a maximum nicotine level for tobacco products
In 2018 FDA announced that it was working on a rule setting a maximum level of nicotine in cigarettes. As part of our public comments to FDA on its pending strategic plan my UCSF colleagues and I urged FDA to finalize such a rule and expand its scope beyond just cigarettes. (A PDF is here.Continue reading “CTP should finally set a maximum nicotine level for tobacco products”
CTP should finalize the rules prohibiting menthol in cigarettes and prohibiting characterizing flavors in cigars, including menthol analogs
The fact that menthol is the most important additive in tobacco products is clear from the fact that the tobacco companies made exempting menthol from the ban on characterizing flavors in the original 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act as well as the companies ongoing (unsuccessful) efforts to fight local and state prohibitionsContinue reading “CTP should finalize the rules prohibiting menthol in cigarettes and prohibiting characterizing flavors in cigars, including menthol analogs”
FDA should finalize its updated list of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents by December 2023
In April 2022, I pointed out that one of the nerdy, but very important, parts of the FDA tobacco product regulatory process is the list of “Hazardous and Potentially Hazardous Compounds” (HPHC) list that FDA released in 2012. This list contains 93 bad chemicals — mostly carcinogens — that FDA identified as important when assessingContinue reading “FDA should finalize its updated list of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents by December 2023”
FDA (and others) should integrate the relationship between cannabis and tobacco use
My UCSF colleagues and I submitted a public comment to the FDA Center for Tobacco Products regarding its upcoming strategic plan urging FDA to more strongly integrate the crossover between tobacco and cannabis use into its planning. While FDA does not (yet) have jurisdiction over cannabis, there is no question that growing cannabis use hasContinue reading “FDA (and others) should integrate the relationship between cannabis and tobacco use”
FDA should prioritize direct measures of health and behavioral effects over indirect measures or assumptions in making regulatory decisions
Last week I posted by oral testimony to the FDA listening session for developing its strategic plan, “FDA CTP should prioritize direct epidemiological population measures of health and behavior over indirect measures or assumptions.” My UCSF colleagues and I also subsequently submitted a written public comment amplifying the points in the oral testimony, including citations forContinue reading “FDA should prioritize direct measures of health and behavioral effects over indirect measures or assumptions in making regulatory decisions”
FDA CTP should prioritize direct epidemiological population measures of health and behavior over indirect measures or assumptions.
On August 22, 2023 the FDA Center for Tobacco Products held a listening session to gather public input to help it prepare it’s strategic plan. Here is what I said: My name is Stanton Glantz. I am a retired UCSF Professor of Medicine and served as principal investigator of the UCSF TCORS until I retired. Continue reading “FDA CTP should prioritize direct epidemiological population measures of health and behavior over indirect measures or assumptions.”
Streaming programs in Germany promoting tobacco use, too
Earlier studies have documented lots of smoking and other tobacco use in popular US and Indian streaming media programs, with most of exposure coming from programs produced by American companies, most notably Netflix and Amazon. Now Matthis Morgenstern and colleagues (including me) have shown that the same thing is true in popular German streaming programs.Continue reading “Streaming programs in Germany promoting tobacco use, too”
Stanton Glantz blog 