The now-shuttered CDC Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) has conducted the National Youth Tobacco Survey since 1999. The survey provides important surveillance about how youth tobacco use is changing. After Congress created the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, it partnered with CDC to expand the scope and depth of the survey, including increasing detailsContinue reading “Trump gives Big Tobacco a big gift: He killed the National Youth Tobacco Survey, blinding public, researchers, and policy makers to the effects of changing tobacco industry products and practices”
Category Archives: health
“Hard core” smokers are melting away in response to established tobacco control policies
The whole argument for promoting e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and other “potentially reduced risk” tobacco products is built on the assumption that there is a “hard-core” of smokers who “cannot or will not quit” using established smoking cessation therapies or in response to population level tobacco control interventions (e.g., clean indoor air laws, media campaigns, orContinue reading ““Hard core” smokers are melting away in response to established tobacco control policies”
Three year study finds that fourth-generation e-cigarettes like Juul associated with continued smoking and vaping
Most studies of the association between e-cigarette use and smoking and nicotine cessation have been conducted with the earlier generation e-cigarettes, which do not deliver nicotine as effectively as the fourth generation e-cigarettes pioneered by Juul. (These e-cigarettes use protonated nicotine [also called nicotine salts] to increase nicotine delivery to the user.) Our meta-analysis ofContinue reading “Three year study finds that fourth-generation e-cigarettes like Juul associated with continued smoking and vaping”
RJR reports Calif effort to get rid of “non-menthol” cigs are working
In 2023 RJR Tobacco sued California AG Rob Bonta trying to block his decision that RJR’s “non-menthol” cigarettes (example1, example2) were included in California’s prohibition on the sale of flavored tobacco products. RJR argued that these products were not “flavored” because the cooling sensation they delivered was provided with the chemical WS-3, which did notContinue reading “RJR reports Calif effort to get rid of “non-menthol” cigs are working”
Surgeon General Reports on Tobacco Health Disparities and E-cigs available at UCSF Tobacco Center eScholarship site
Shortly after Donald Trump took office, the Surgeon General Reports Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities (2024) and E-cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults (2016), together with related public education materials, disappeared from the CDC website. As of today (February 24, 2025), the e-cigarette report was back on the CDC website, but theContinue reading “Surgeon General Reports on Tobacco Health Disparities and E-cigs available at UCSF Tobacco Center eScholarship site”
Heated tobacco products increase risk of metabolic syndrome more than smoking
The tobacco companies have been aggressively promoting heated tobacco products (HTP), including Philip Morris IQOS, BAT’s glo and JTI’s Ploom, as safer alternatives to cigarettes as part of the companies’ efforts to reposition themselves as “part of the solution” to the tobacco problem. Similar to e-cigarettes, they argue that these products are safer because theContinue reading “Heated tobacco products increase risk of metabolic syndrome more than smoking”
Dual cigarette and e-cig use increases human risk of lung cancer 40 times
As summarized in an earlier blog post, exposure to e-cigarette aerosol accelerates tumore growth and spread (metastasis) among established cancers. This effect is distinct from actually causing the cancer (i.e., carcinogenesis). Indeed, propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine (PG/VG), the primary solvents in e-liquid and which have been assumed to be inert are major causes ofContinue reading “Dual cigarette and e-cig use increases human risk of lung cancer 40 times”
UCSF adds 151k Juul documents to Truth Tobacco Documents Library, bringing total to 2.9 million Juul documents
The UCSF Industry Documents Library just released 151.079 new Juul documents, bringing the total to 2,880,772 documents in the JUUL Labs collection and 17,893,389 documents in the Truth Tobacco Documents Library. This new batch of documents includes social media presence reports, marketing campaigns, focus group findings, product design, and more. In partnership with the UniversityContinue reading “UCSF adds 151k Juul documents to Truth Tobacco Documents Library, bringing total to 2.9 million Juul documents”
E-cig advocates publish results showing e-cig users have more respiratory symptoms than nonsmokers
E-cigarette advocate Riccardo Polosa, along with pro-harm reduction colleagues from around the world, recently published Respiratory symptoms among e-cigarette users without an established smoking history in the VERITAS cohort. Their paper presents strong evidence that sole e-cigarette users (i.e., people who are not also smoking cigarettes) are significantly more likely to experience respiratory symptoms thanContinue reading “E-cig advocates publish results showing e-cig users have more respiratory symptoms than nonsmokers”
FDA & NIH must support research to increase tobacco cessation reach and engagement to address populations disproportionately harmed by Big Tobacco
My colleagues and I submitted this public commento to FDA and NIH regarding their priorities for tobacco cessatio research. The Regulations.gov tracking number is m3p-2qiq-zm6w. A PDF version is available here. While it was not publicly available when we were preparing this comment, a lot of the suggestions overlap or complement the recently-released Surgeon GeneralContinue reading “FDA & NIH must support research to increase tobacco cessation reach and engagement to address populations disproportionately harmed by Big Tobacco”
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