Matthew J. Carpenter and colleagues recently published what is probably the most informative randomized controlled clinical trial of the effect of giving current cigarette smokers free e-cigarettes on their nicotine consumption: Effect of unguided e-cigarette provision on uptake, use, and smoking cessation among adults who smoke in the USA: a naturalistic, randomised, controlled clinical trial. They recruitedContinue reading “New well-done RCT shows that giving smokers free e-cigarettes creates more dual users than switchers or quitters”
Author Archives: Stanton Glantz
Juul damages vascular function in people as much as a cigarette
There are several studies in people showing that earlier generations of e-cigarettes inhibit normal blood vessel function as well as studies in animals showing that this is the case for a wide variety of e-cigarettes, including Juul. Now Ziyad Ben Taleb and colleagues have shown that Juul inhibits blood vessel function just like cigarettes doContinue reading “Juul damages vascular function in people as much as a cigarette”
FDA tiptoes toward enforcement of rules prohibiting unauthorized ecigs
It is currently illegal to sell almost every e-cigarette on the market. (The exceptions are a few e-cigarettes produced by RJ Reynolds, NJOY and Logic Technologies.) But FDA has been very slow to take strong formal enforcement actions. As of October 2022, FDA, working through the Department of Justice, had sought injunctions against 6 small-timeContinue reading “FDA tiptoes toward enforcement of rules prohibiting unauthorized ecigs”
EPA needs to expand proposed perchloroethylene rule
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”
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”
Stanton Glantz blog 