E-cigarette advocates and tobacco harm reduction advocates, as well as the FDA, have long promoted a 50% reduction in cigarette smoking as a positive outcome when assessing the value of e-cigarettes (recent example). The FDA’s use of this benchmark is particularly surprising because in 2021 FDA scientists published a meta-analysis of the effects of smokers reducingContinue reading “Replacing 50% of cigs with ecigs or HTP had no lung benefit”
Category Archives: health
Cochrane Collaborative concludes that e-cigs as medicines help a few people shop smoking (again); still ignoring differences between medicines and consumer products as well as dual use
On January 8, 2024, the Cochrane Collaborative published yet another meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concluding that e-cigarettes help a few people stop smoking. While industry and other pro-e-cigarette interests will make a big deal of this, the fact is that there is nothing new here. Here is their primary conclusion: There is high certaintyContinue reading “Cochrane Collaborative concludes that e-cigs as medicines help a few people shop smoking (again); still ignoring differences between medicines and consumer products as well as dual use”
E-cigarettes associated with heart attacks in never smokers
Since we published the first study demonstrating that e-cigarette use was associated with higher odds of having had a heart attack, e-cigarette advocates have argued that this association was an artifact of current or former cigarette smoking or “reverse causation” due to smokers starting to use e-cigarettes after they had a heart attack. Now TalalContinue reading “E-cigarettes associated with heart attacks in never smokers”
Youth living in vapefree homes much less likely to use e-cigs
While the reason for enacting smokefree laws and implementing voluntary smokefree policies has been to protect people from secondhand smoke, a well-established side effect is that they help adult smokers quit and help prevent youth smoking (laws, home policies). Now Jeremy Staff and his colleagues have shown that kids living in vapefree households are muchContinue reading “Youth living in vapefree homes much less likely to use e-cigs”
Ecigs increased health costs by $15.1 billion in 2018
Until now we have not had direct estimates of the costs of treating the excess disease that e-cigarettes cause. Now, Yingning Wang and her UCSF colleagues have published Healthcare utilisation and expenditures attributable to current e-cigarette use among US adults that applies the same well-established methods they have used to estimate the medical costs of smokingContinue reading “Ecigs increased health costs by $15.1 billion in 2018”
Opioids: Internal Documents reveal Corporate Strategy, National Tragedy
A new article, “Corporate Strategy, National Tragedy” in UCSF Magazine details how Dorie Apollonio and her pharmacy students have been mining the UCSF Opioid Industry Documents Archive to understand how the drug companies worked behind the scene to create the opioid epidemic on their way to maximizing profits. In the process, it provides practical examplesContinue reading “Opioids: Internal Documents reveal Corporate Strategy, National Tragedy”
Read Times (London) insightful articles detailing tobacco companies’ hidden efforts to protect vaping
Times of London investigative reporter Billy Kneber published four excellent articles documenting how major tobacco companies have been manipulating England to promote and protect e-cigarettes. While , as he notes, the strategies are nothing new, but the specific details provide important insights into the industry’s successes in England, including specific organizations and people and how theContinue reading “Read Times (London) insightful articles detailing tobacco companies’ hidden efforts to protect vaping”
Stanton Glantz blog 