As debates over nicotine and flavors in e-cigarettes continues to heat up, Mari Gades, Aleksandra Alcheva, Amy Riegelman, and Dorothy Hatsukami just published “The role of nicotine and flavor in the abuse potential and appeal of electronic cigarettes for adult current and former cigarette and electronic cigarette users: A systematic review” in Nicotine and TobaccoContinue reading “Higher nicotine content and flavors increase e-cig abuse liability”
Category Archives: smoking cessation
Tobacco control policies are “softening” smokers
The desire to reach “hard core” smokers, typically characterized as smokers who “cannot or will not quit,” is one of the core justifications for e-cigarettes and other new alternative tobacco products are part of the industry’s “harm reduction” agenda. Now Miranda Harris and her Australian colleagues have produced a systematic review debunking the hardening hypothesisContinue reading “Tobacco control policies are “softening” smokers”
E-cig science has marched on; it is important that decision making and education be based on the current state of knowledge
In January 2021, I published a blog post making the point that the 2018 National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report on e-cigarettes was out of date. Now, Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada has published an extensive update detailing specifically how the science on e-cigarettes has advanced since then 2018, noting thatContinue reading “E-cig science has marched on; it is important that decision making and education be based on the current state of knowledge”
More real world evidence that e-cigs make it harder to quit cigarettes
The evidence that e-cigarettes do not work for smoking cessation just keeps piling up. The latest high quality real world study, “Effectiveness of e-cigarettes as aids for smoking cessation: evidence from the PATH Cohort Study, 2017-19,” published by Ruifeng Chen and colleagues at UCSD in Tobacco Control reports on the association between e-cigarette use andContinue reading “More real world evidence that e-cigs make it harder to quit cigarettes”
The fact that daily ecig users quit more is not relevant to FDA CTP’s assessment of whether to authorize the sale of e-cigs
The new paper “Association of e-cigarette use with discontinuation of cigarette smokers among adult cigarette smokers who were initially planning to quit” in JAMA Open Network by Karin Karza and colleagues confirms that smokers who use e-cigarettes daily are more likely to quit cigarettes than those who don’t use e-cigarettes. Also consistent with earlier studies,Continue reading “The fact that daily ecig users quit more is not relevant to FDA CTP’s assessment of whether to authorize the sale of e-cigs”
Ecig enthusiasts respond to criticism that they selectively cited the science by ignoring the conclusions of the papers they do cite
In addition to the excellent paper by Samet and Barrington-Trimis the American Journal of Public Health recently published two letters to the editor — one from Wasim Maziak and one from me — criticizing the paper “Balancing consideration of the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes.” That paper argues that concerns over youth e-cigarette use needsContinue reading “Ecig enthusiasts respond to criticism that they selectively cited the science by ignoring the conclusions of the papers they do cite”
E-cigs: What about helping the smokers?
A lot of the discussion of e-cigarettes has been about the millions of youth who are starting nicotine addiction with them. While the tobacco companies are obvious beneficiaries of this fact, no one — not even the companies — publicly claims that this is a good thing. The goal is to “help addicted smokers quitContinue reading “E-cigs: What about helping the smokers?”
E-cig inventor Hon Lik is still smoking
Popular lore is that Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik invented e-cigarettes in 2003 to help people quit smoking. The Times of London reported that it didn’t work for him. Instead of “switching completely” he is a dual user, vaping and smoking at the same time. Hon Lik’s experience is what you would expect from the strongContinue reading “E-cig inventor Hon Lik is still smoking”
New meta-analysis confirms that e-cigs do not help smokers quit in the real world
Linnea Hedman and colleagues in Sweden just published a new meta-analysis of the relationship between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation, Electronic cigarette use and smoking cessation in cohort studies and randomized trials: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Like our earlier meta-analysis, did separate analyses of population-based observational studies and randomized trials of e-cigarettes provided asContinue reading “New meta-analysis confirms that e-cigs do not help smokers quit in the real world”
World Heart Federation highlights cardiovascular risks of e-cigs, calls for strict regulation, supports countries with bans
On October 18, 2021 the World Heart Federation released a policy brief “E-cigarettes: A new threat to cardiovascular health,” (press release) that provides an overview of the evidence that e-cigarette use has a wide range of adverse effects on the cardiovascular system that are reflected as an increased risk of heart attack at a populationContinue reading “World Heart Federation highlights cardiovascular risks of e-cigs, calls for strict regulation, supports countries with bans”
Stanton Glantz blog 