Despite years of vigorous opposition from the tobacco companies, in 2022 California’s law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products went into effect. RJR Reynolds (maker of the leading menthol band, Newport), immediately responded by starting to market “non-menthol” cigarettes with virtually the same packaging as the menthol version in California, claiming that these productsContinue reading “Calif AG releases rules for creating “Unflavored Tobacco List” for quick public comment”
Category Archives: heated tobacco products
Support CDC plan to reinstate NYTS by Aug 15 deadline to submit supportive public comments
In April 2025, the Trump Administration pulled the plug on the National Youth Tobacco Survey in the middle of collecting the 2025 sample, essentially blinding the federal government and the public from important detailed information on youth tobacco use. Now, they are proposing to reinstate it. If implemented properly, this is an important decision. ItContinue reading “Support CDC plan to reinstate NYTS by Aug 15 deadline to submit supportive public comments”
New WHO report details progress and problems in global tobacco control
In June 2025 the WHO released its new comprehensive WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2025: Warning about the dangers of tobacco. The report contains detailed country-specific analysis and statistics about progress in reducing tobacco use, policies, and industry opposition. It is a valuable reference document. It recognizes that Overall, while progress since 2007Continue reading “New WHO report details progress and problems in global tobacco control”
Global Action to End Smoking (formerly Foundation for a Smoke Free World) lays off CEO Cliff Douglas
In October 2023 Philip Morris International’s Foundation for a Smoke Free World hired Cliff Douglas as its new CEO (Wikipedia entry). FSFW was the latest in a long string of “third party” organizations created and funded by the tobacco industry to support its political needs, in this case to promote what the industry calls “smokeContinue reading “Global Action to End Smoking (formerly Foundation for a Smoke Free World) lays off CEO Cliff Douglas”
18 Senators write HHS leaders asking for details on cuts to tobacco programs and specific plans to meet legal obligations
On April 22, 2025, 18 Democratic senators wrote HHS Secretary Kennedy and the leaders of the FDA and CDC expressing concern about Trump Administration decisions to decapitate and cut the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and shut down the CDC Office on Smoking and Health, actions that will cost billions in health costs by nextContinue reading “18 Senators write HHS leaders asking for details on cuts to tobacco programs and specific plans to meet legal obligations”
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
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”
Historical and political context for Philip Morris International’s continuing medical education courses on harm reduction: Implications for current product regulation
In mid-2024 Drs. Robert Jackler, Pam Ling and others learned that the for-profit medical company Medcape was offering a continuing medical education course on tobacco harm reduction sponsored by Philip Morris International that promoted the industry position that smokers could reduce risk by switching from cigarettes to “less risky” products, such as smokeless tobacco. MostContinue reading “Historical and political context for Philip Morris International’s continuing medical education courses on harm reduction: Implications for current product regulation”
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”
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”
UCSF adds 117k Juul documents to Truth Tobacco documents Library bringing total to over 2.7 million documents
The UCSF Industry Documents Library just released 117,446 new Juul documents, bringing the total to 2,719,964 documents in the JUUL Labs collection and 103,218,810 pages in 17,742,311 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 partnershipContinue reading “UCSF adds 117k Juul documents to Truth Tobacco documents Library bringing total to over 2.7 million documents”
Stanton Glantz blog 