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”
Category Archives: menthol
FDA ignores current science to give Juul a pass
Not surprisingly, on July 17, 2025, FDA authorized the sale of Juul tobacco and menthol e-cigarettes. I wish I could say that I am “not surprised” because during the 2024 campaign President Trump announced that he would “save vaping,” but, on reading FDA’s scientific justification (the Technical Product Lead report [TPL]), I found that theContinue reading “FDA ignores current science to give Juul a pass”
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”
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”
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”
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”
Calif updates state ban on sales of flavored tobacco products to close loophole and strengthen enforcement: A great model for others
When California passed its law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products in 2020, including menthol cigarettes, RJR and other tobacco interests forced a referendum to try and block the law. Voters upheld the law in 2022, and it went into effect. This law prohibited retail sales of tobacco products with a “characterizing flavor,” looselyContinue reading “Calif updates state ban on sales of flavored tobacco products to close loophole and strengthen enforcement: A great model for others”
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”