The RCP got this right: Promotion of tobacco harm reduction is playing right into the tobacco industry’s hands

I previously published three detailed critiques of the 2024 UK Royal College of Physicians report E-cigarettes and Harm Reduction: An Evidence Review for being an incomplete and selective review of the literature in three areas — underestimating the magnitude of disease risk caused by e-cigarettes, ignoring the large body of real world evidence that e-cigarettesContinue reading “The RCP got this right: Promotion of tobacco harm reduction is playing right into the tobacco industry’s hands”

Smokers who use e-cigs as for smoking cessation are more likely to end up dual users than to “switch completely” or stop smoking and vaping

E-cigarette enthusiasts, including the FDA and the NHS and others in England, and some in New Zealand and Canadian governments continue to promote “switching completely” from cigarettes to e-cigarettes as a form of harm reduction. I just found another paper that shows that the reality is that adult smokers who use e-cigarettes as a smokingContinue reading “Smokers who use e-cigs as for smoking cessation are more likely to end up dual users than to “switch completely” or stop smoking and vaping”

Register for free UCSF indusry documents workshop Oct 8

Registration is now open for the UCSF Annual Tobacco and Other Industry Documents Workshop. The workshop, which is a joint project of UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and the UCSF Library will again be held virtually on October 8th from 9am-12:15pm Pacific Time. Participants will gain comprehensive knowledge of UCSF’s Industry DocumentsContinue reading “Register for free UCSF indusry documents workshop Oct 8”

Wide-ranging podcast with ProfGlantz

Douglas County Oregon Public Health recently released an hour long interview Mitchell Kilkenny conducted with me covering everything from how I got involved with tobacco control through secondhand smoke’s effects to our recent research showing that for for many diseases e-cigarettes have indistinguishable risks to smoking, why the tobacco free generation” is a bad idea,Continue reading “Wide-ranging podcast with ProfGlantz”

Implications of 2024 NYTS: Ban nicotine salts and clamp down on Zyn

Last week the FDA and CDC released their analysis of the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey. The 2024 report moved beyond earlier FDA and CDC summaries of NYTS results by including details on how heavily youth were using e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, as well as details on brand preferences and specific flavor preferences, including “ice”Continue reading “Implications of 2024 NYTS: Ban nicotine salts and clamp down on Zyn”

Damage to offspring caused by moms’ e-cig exposure during pregnancy persists long after birth and makes offspring more sensitive to e-cig insults

Amber Mills and colleagues new paper Maternal use of electronic cigarettes and impact on offspring: a double-hit model is a follow-up study to their earlier work showing that mother (rat) exposure to e-cigarette aerosol during pregnancy harmed offspring. The new study shows that the adverse effects of in utero (i.e., to the developing fetuses inContinue reading “Damage to offspring caused by moms’ e-cig exposure during pregnancy persists long after birth and makes offspring more sensitive to e-cig insults”

e-cig PG/VG and nicotine promote tumor growth and metastasis

E-cigarettes deliver nicotine to users by aerosolizing “e-liquid” that is a solution containing nicotine and flavoring agents. The solvent used to dissolve these elements usually consists of propylene glycol and glycerin (PG/VG), which is recognized by the FDA as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) for ingestion (eating), so people generally don’t worry about it. InContinue reading “e-cig PG/VG and nicotine promote tumor growth and metastasis”

Genetic evidence that e-cigarettes increase cancer (and other disease) risk among young adults

E-cigarette advocates — as well as regulators like the FDA — are fond of pointing out that nicotine is not a carcinogen (chemical that causes cancer) and noting that because they do not involve combustion, e-cigarettes do not deliver many carcinogenic chemicals produced by burning cigarettes. A new paper by Stella Tommasi , Ahmad BesaratiniaContinue reading “Genetic evidence that e-cigarettes increase cancer (and other disease) risk among young adults”

FDA should deny renewal of PMI’s modified risk claim for Swedish Match Snus because of joint marketing with ZYN nicotine pouches

My UCSF colleagues and I submitted this public comment to FDA. It is an updated version of the one we submitted to TPSAC on June 20, 2024. A PDF is here. The Regulations.gov tracking number is lz3-50m7-es1x. FDA should consider the significant public health issues, especially for youth, created by Philip Morris International’s co-marketing ofContinue reading “FDA should deny renewal of PMI’s modified risk claim for Swedish Match Snus because of joint marketing with ZYN nicotine pouches”

New meta-analysis of e-cigs and cardiovascular disease shows increased risks

Chen Chen and colleagues recently published Assessing the association between e-cigarette use and cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis of exclusive and dual use with combustible cigarettes that found significantly elevated cardiovascular disease risk in dual users (people who use both e-cigarettes and cigarettes) and former smokers who had switched to e-cigarettes compared to people who hadContinue reading “New meta-analysis of e-cigs and cardiovascular disease shows increased risks”