The Cochrane Collaborative, an organization that does systematic reviews generally to guide clinical practice, released a “Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation (Review).” Like earlier Cochrane reviews, this review focused on randomized clinical trials that are designed to study effectiveness of medicines delivered under clinical supervision, not e-cigarettes as consumer products used in the real worldContinue reading “Cochrane Collaborative concludes e-cigs as medical interventions help smokers quit (again) while continuing to ignoring stronger more relevant real world evidence that they don’t”
Author Archives: Stanton Glantz
Using e-cigs, cigs, heated tobacco products, or marijuana once a day increases risk of heart arrythmias and causes remodeling of the heart
Huiliang Qiu, Matt Springer, and colleagues’ paper “Increased vulnerability to atrial and ventricular arrhythmias caused by different types of inhaled tobacco or marijuana products” makes two important points: (1) even very short daily exposures to tobacco and marijuana products have serious cumulative effects on the heart, and (2) nicotine and THC, the psychoactive components ofContinue reading “Using e-cigs, cigs, heated tobacco products, or marijuana once a day increases risk of heart arrythmias and causes remodeling of the heart“
Members of the scientific network used to promote “tobacco harm reduction” often don’t disclose industry ties
The tobacco industry has a long history of supporting scientists, often quietly, to establish narratives that promote its interests. Now Julia Vassey, Yogi Hendlin, Manali Vora, and Pam Ling have published a formal analysis showing the network of scientists publishing papers on “tobacco harm reduction,” the core ideology used to justify promoting e-cigarettes and manyContinue reading “Members of the scientific network used to promote “tobacco harm reduction” often don’t disclose industry ties”
RJR promotes “ice” cigarettes to get around Calif flavored tobacco sales ban
In addition to suing California on a last ditch attempt to block California’s ban on sale of flavored tobacco products that was overwhelmingly endorsed by the voters, RJ Reynolds (BAT’s US subsidiary) has sent mailers to smokers promoting new “non-menthol” cigarettes that taste like menthol (pictures above). Desmond Jenson from the Public Health Law CenterContinue reading “RJR promotes “ice” cigarettes to get around Calif flavored tobacco sales ban”
Surprise! Reynolds & friends sue to block Calif flavored tobacco ban
Like clockwork the Big Tobacco (RJ Reynolds and others) sued California to block implementation of the state’s ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products (Proposition 31). This is not surprising since the tobacco companies have a long history of filing unsuccessful lawsuits to scare local and state governments and slow things down. Unlike normalContinue reading “Surprise! Reynolds & friends sue to block Calif flavored tobacco ban”
A troubling look inside FDA CTP staff highlighting interference with scientific assessment of PMTAs
Yesterday (November 7, 2022), after Lauren Lempert finished working on our letter to the Regan-Udall Foundation raising issues about the FDA’s scientific standards for assessing premarket tobacco product applications, she browsed the Foundation page listing all the comments that had been submitted to the Expert Panel. The picture that emerges from looking at just aContinue reading “A troubling look inside FDA CTP staff highlighting interference with scientific assessment of PMTAs”
Calif voters overwhelmingly confirm ban on flavored tobacco products
After the California legislature and the governor signed a state law ending the sale of almost all flavored tobacco products including menthol, in 2020, the tobacco companies spent $22 million to force a voter referendum. That suspended the law for two years until the voters could weigh in. Now they have, crushing Big Tobacco withContinue reading “Calif voters overwhelmingly confirm ban on flavored tobacco products”
Recommendations to improve FDA premarket tobacco product application review to follow statutory mandates and improve scientific rigor
On October 21, 2022, Lauren Lempert presented at one of the Regan-Udall Foundation Expert Panels listening sessions on how to improve FDA operations of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products operations. She and I followed up with a written comment letter detailing many of the problems with the tobacco product application processes, including both the premarketContinue reading “Recommendations to improve FDA premarket tobacco product application review to follow statutory mandates and improve scientific rigor”
Kids more addicted to e-cigs since Juul introduced protonated nicotine
One of the big innovations Juul pioneered was adding acid to the liquid in e-cigarettes to make the nicotine aerosol less alkaline and easier to inhale. This so-called protonated nicotine allows the e-cigarettes to deliver higher doses of the addictive drug nicotine. Therefore, we would expect to see increasing measures of addiction among e-cigarette usingContinue reading “Kids more addicted to e-cigs since Juul introduced protonated nicotine”
Regan-Udall Foundation review of FDA tobacco regulation “listening sessions” dominated by pro-industry speakers
Regan-Udall Foundation review of FDA tobacco regulation “listening sessions” dominated by pro-industry speakers The FDA has asked the Regan-Udall Foundation for recommendations on how to improve tobacco product regulation. The Foundation’s Tobacco Independent Expert Panel has had three “listening sessions” that have been dominated by industry players and “harm reduction” advocates. I have previously expressedContinue reading “Regan-Udall Foundation review of FDA tobacco regulation “listening sessions” dominated by pro-industry speakers“
Stanton Glantz blog 