Category Archives: smoking

Even more evidence that youth who start with e-cigs triple the odds that they will later smoke cigarettes

As more studies are published on the link between youth e-cigarette use and subsequent cigarette smoking youth, people continue publish meta-analyses summing up the results. The latest such meta-analysis, recently published in PLOS One by Sze Lin Yoong and colleagues, “Association between electronic nicotine delivery systems and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems with initiation of tobaccoContinue reading “Even more evidence that youth who start with e-cigs triple the odds that they will later smoke cigarettes”

No quitting benefit for e-cigs over FDA-approved therapies … and lots of dangerous dual use

The FDA Center for Tobacco Products concern about balancing potential benefits of e-cigs with demonstrated risks to youth presumes that adults using e-cigarettes will switch completely to e-cigs and that e-cigs are substantially less risky than cigarettes. Bekir Kaplan and colleagues’ new paper Effectiveness of ENDS, NRT and medication for smoking cessation among cigarette-only users:Continue reading “No quitting benefit for e-cigs over FDA-approved therapies … and lots of dangerous dual use”

New studies for UK, Netherlands and Flanders and US confirm gateway effects of e-cigs to combusted tobacco products

Three new studies add to the already overwhelming case that e-cigarettes are a gateway to combusted product use; two of these studies also show that combusted tobacco use predicts later e-cigarette use among youth. These studies are benefit from the fact that the data were collected relatively recently, which is important because e-cigarette technology isContinue reading “New studies for UK, Netherlands and Flanders and US confirm gateway effects of e-cigs to combusted tobacco products”

More evidence that smoking makes COVID-19 worse

Kade Patanavanich and I published a meta-analysis that concluded that a history of smoking was associated with COVID-19 disease progression in August 2020 that was based on 19 papers. We just published an update, “Smoking is associated with worse outcomes of COVID-19 particularly among younger adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis” based on 46 papers.Continue reading “More evidence that smoking makes COVID-19 worse”

New WHO report highlights falling cigarette use and challenges that new tobacco products pose to public health and implementation of the FCTC

On July 27, 2021 the WHO released the WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2021: addressing new and emerging products, its eighth such report. The good news is that it documents solid progress in reducing tobacco use. After over a century of growth, “between 2007 and 2019, smoking rates decreased from a global averageContinue reading “New WHO report highlights falling cigarette use and challenges that new tobacco products pose to public health and implementation of the FCTC”

More details on how menthol helps Big Tobacco keep kids hooked

Keeping menthol in cigarettes (and other tobacco products) has been a priority for the tobacco companies ever since they got it exempted from the characterizing flavor ban in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that gave the FDA jurisdiction over tobacco products. The already-strong case for banning menthol just got stronger withContinue reading “More details on how menthol helps Big Tobacco keep kids hooked”

More direct evidence that SF flavor ban worked

Last year we published a paper on implementation of San Francisco’s ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products (including menthol) that reported that health department inspectors found high compliance with the flavor ban when they visited retailers. Now, Doris Gammon and colleagues have shown that the law virtually eliminated sales of flavored tobacco productsContinue reading “More direct evidence that SF flavor ban worked”

What we can and cannot say about the immediate effect of SF’s flavored tobacco product ban

NOTE: This blog post was written before it came to light that the San Francisco data in the Friedman study was all collected before the flavor ban was being enforced. Without data after enforcement started, Friedman’s paper falls apart. Please read the recent blog post detailed why this is the case. On May 24, 2021Continue reading “What we can and cannot say about the immediate effect of SF’s flavored tobacco product ban”

Banning menthol leads to big drop in smoking in Canada: Implications for USA

As the April 29 deadline for the Biden Administration to respond to a lawsuit brought by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and Action on Smoking and Health approaches, the results of a large national survey from Canada show that banning the sale of menthol cigarettes was followed by a huge increase in smokingContinue reading “Banning menthol leads to big drop in smoking in Canada: Implications for USA”