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: public health
Trump removes Brian King as Director and guts FDA Center for Tobacco Products
As part of its campaign to wreck the federal government, Brian King, head of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, has been put on administrative leave. He has been reportedly offered a job with a regional office of the Indian Health Service that includes Alaska. (According to the New York Times, “Some senior leaders basedContinue reading “Trump removes Brian King as Director and guts FDA Center for Tobacco Products”
“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”
Forewarned is for-armed: Tobacco, food and alcohol industry efforts to intimidate health advocates and researchers
As someone who has spent decades doing public health research and advocacy on tobacco and other issues, I have been the object of several attacks and intimidation efforts, including, among other things, attacks on my professional credibility, litigation, and pressure on funders. Fortunately, thanks to a strong support network, including from the University of California,Continue reading “Forewarned is for-armed: Tobacco, food and alcohol industry efforts to intimidate health advocates and researchers”
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”
Dual use is not an intermediate condition on the way from cigarettes to “switching completely” or quitting
Discussion of potential harm reduction associated with the use of e-cigarettes assumes that smokers will “switch completely” from cigarettes to e-cigarettes or stop both tobacco products. Advocates of this view, including the US FDA, recognize and accept that this process may include a period of dual use in which smokers use both products. Now JosefContinue reading “Dual use is not an intermediate condition on the way from cigarettes to “switching completely” or quitting”
Stanton Glantz blog 