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?”
Category Archives: heart disease
Read the behind scenes story of the 1964 Surgeon General Report on Smoking and Health
The 1964 Report on Smoking and Health represented a turning point in the history of tobacco in the United States and the world. Now Don Shopland [photo above], who at the time was an eighteen year-old, “newly working at the National Library of Medicine,” who found himself moonlighting for the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee thatContinue reading “Read the behind scenes story of the 1964 Surgeon General Report on Smoking and 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”
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”
More information on how ecigs increase cardiovascular disease risk
The evidence that e-cigarette use is associated with increased cardiovascular disease keeps accumulaing, together with studies on the specific pathophysiological mechanisms through which e-cigarette use increases disease risk. The recent review by Huiqi Zong, Zhekai Hu and colleagues, Electronic cigarettes and cardiovascular disease: epidemiological and biological links, is the most recent summary of this evidence.Continue reading “More information on how ecigs increase cardiovascular disease risk”
FDA needs to reconsider its promotion of the “continuum of risk” for e-cigarettes
As of February 22, 2024, the FDA was continuing to embrace the idea that there is a “continuum of risk” with combusted tobacco as the riskiest and e-cigarettes being substantially less risky. As a result, FDA promotes e-cigarettes as a way for smokers to reduce risk. This view is based on the fact that e-cigarettesContinue reading “FDA needs to reconsider its promotion of the “continuum of risk” for e-cigarettes”
Cannabis use linked to increase in heart attack and stroke risk
Many people think cannabis is “medicine” and so ignore its heath effects. Abra Jeffers, Amy Byers, Salome Keyhani and I just published Association of cannabis use with cardiovascular outcomes among US adults in the Journal of the American Heart Association that found that cannabis use is associated with adverse cardiovascular events with heavier use (moreContinue reading “Cannabis use linked to increase in heart attack and stroke risk”
E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone
It is an article of faith among e-cigarette advocates that they are substantially less risky than cigarettes. Rather than being based on the actual associations between e-cigarette use and disease, this belief is based on the fact that e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco, so avoid the toxic combustion products that cigarettes produce. In recent years,Continue reading “E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone”
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”
New strong evidence that Juul is more toxic to lungs and hearts than earlier e-cigs
Two new papers strongly suggest that Juul (and, likely, other fourth generation e-cigarettes) are more dangerous than earlier tank systems. One, Differential Toxicity of Electronic Cigarette Aerosols Generated from Different Generations of Devices In Vitro and In Vivo, finds that Juul has higher pulmonary toxicity than earlier tank systems and the second, Nicotine Formulation InfluencesContinue reading “New strong evidence that Juul is more toxic to lungs and hearts than earlier e-cigs”
Stanton Glantz blog 