On April 18, 2024 the UK Royal College of Physicians published E-cigarettes and Harm Reduction: An Evidence Review, the latest in a series of reports it has published since 2007 endorsing e-cigarettes for harm reduction. The report covers a wide range of topics, including assessing the health risks of e-cigarettes, the central question on whetherContinue reading “Why is the Royal College of Physicians concluding e-cigs reduce harm while ignoring the substantial associations between e-cigs and actual disease?”
Category Archives: e-cigarettes
Tobacco industry denormalization supports stronger tobacco control policies
Tobacco industry denormalization — the strategy of educating people about the predatory behavior of the tobacco industry — is used in many high income states and countries. Now, Roengrudee Patanavanich and I have published “Awareness of tobacco industry tactics among tobacco control communities in Thailand and its association with attitudes towards tobacco industry and perceptionsContinue reading “Tobacco industry denormalization supports stronger tobacco control policies”
Why is the FDA still pushing e-cigs as lower risk based on ancient evidence?
Today (April 16, 2024) the FDA released a new web page on The Relative Risks of Tobacco Products that irresponsibly promotes e-cigarettes as a lower risk alternative to cigarettes. This recommendation is based on the 2018 National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report on e-cigarettes that concluded that e-cigarettes reduce exposure to some toxicContinue reading “Why is the FDA still pushing e-cigs as lower risk based on ancient evidence?”
More people are stopping smoking since advent of fourth gen e-cigs. Less disease? Probably not.
Karin Kasza and colleagues new well-done study, “Divergence in Cigarette Discontinuation Rates by Use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS): Longitudinal Findings From the United States PATH Study Waves 1-6,” uses the large national PATH study to see if there were differences in real-world trends of adults stopping smoking before and after fourth generation e-cigarettesContinue reading “More people are stopping smoking since advent of fourth gen e-cigs. Less disease? Probably not.”
Over 1 million previously secret Juul documents now available, with more to come
The UCSF Industry Documents Library released another 519,000 new Juul Labs documents, bringing the total number of documents to 1,053,233. This is about one-quarter of the complete collection of more than 4 million documents. Check out the Juul documents here.
Ecigs harm periodontal (gum) health
Our recently-published meta-analysis of the association between e-cigarette use and disease (now available open access) found that the risks of e-cigarettes were indistinguishable for cardiovascular disease, stroke and metabolic dysfunction, but did find lower risks for respiratory and oral diseases. Specifically, the risk for oral disease in e-cigarette users was about 13% below that ofContinue reading “Ecigs harm periodontal (gum) health”
NOW OPEN ACCESS: E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone
NEJM Evidence has graciously made our recent paper, “Population-Based Disease Odds for E-Cigarettes and Dual Use versus Cigarettes,” open access so that anyone can read and download it for free. As described in more detail in my blog post on the paper, it uses data from 107 population epidemiology studies of the association between e-cigaretteContinue reading “NOW OPEN ACCESS: E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone”
Contrary to public position, Juul founders wanted to attract former and non-smokers from the beginning
Juul co-founders Adam Monsees and James Bowen portray themselves as idealistic entrepreneurs committed to improving the health of billions of adult smokers with no intent to sell nicotine to non-smokers. Documents released as part of the settlement of North Carolina’s lawsuit against Juul, however, tells quite a different story. In particular, Monsees & Bowen’s 2006Continue reading “Contrary to public position, Juul founders wanted to attract former and non-smokers from the beginning”
5 year longitudinal study finds e-cigs and cigs have similar risks for respiratory disease and COPD; dual use is worse
Beibei Song and colleagues’ new paper, Impact of electronic cigarette usage on the onset of respiratory symptoms and COPD among Chinese adults, finds that e-cigarettes and cigarettes pose similar risks for causing respiratory symptoms and chronic obstructive disease (COPD) in Chinese adults. Dual use is worse than using either product alone. This is a veryContinue reading “5 year longitudinal study finds e-cigs and cigs have similar risks for respiratory disease and COPD; dual use is worse”
Smoking cessation quickly reduces mortality, within 3 years
It’s been long-established that quitting smoking prolongs life and that quitting young (below about 40) eliminates all or almost all the mortality costs of smoking. The new paper Smoking Cessation and Short- and Longer-Term Mortality by Eo Rin Cho and colleagues extends this case to more recent data and from several countries. While they confirmContinue reading “Smoking cessation quickly reduces mortality, within 3 years”
Stanton Glantz blog 