Secondhand cannabis and tobacco smoke both increase cancer risk

The pro-cannabis advocacy group California NORML recently reported that it had successfully kept an exemption for cannabis use in the smokefree multiunit housing provision of the draft ordinance that the Oakland City Council approved on first reading on November 12, 2024.  Their posting includes two inaccurate statements dismissing the cancer risks of secondhand cannabis andContinue reading “Secondhand cannabis and tobacco smoke both increase cancer risk”

Oakland City Council should advance law making bar patios smoke-free and make multi-unit housing tobacco and cannabis smoke-free at November 12 hearing

On November 12, the Oakland City Council will hold a public hearing on a proposed Oakland Smoke-Free Bar Patios and Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing Ordinance introduced by Councilperson Dan Kalb.  The ordinance as proposed would close a loophole that allows smoking on outdoor bar patios and also make multi-unit housing tobacco smoke-free.  Unfortunately, the current draft ordinanceContinue reading “Oakland City Council should advance law making bar patios smoke-free and make multi-unit housing tobacco and cannabis smoke-free at November 12 hearing”

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”

Canadian health groups should press for rejection of proposed provincial tobacco litigation settlement

On October 17, 2024, the proposed terms for settlement of longstanding provincial litigation against the tobacco industry were made public. It is probably the worst settlement of tobacco litigation anywhere in the world to date. All it does is provides one-time money for the provinces to reimburse them for some of the medical costs incurredContinue reading “Canadian health groups should press for rejection of proposed provincial tobacco litigation settlement”

The RCP got this right: Promotion of tobacco harm reduction is playing right into the tobacco industry’s hands

I previously published three detailed critiques of the 2024 UK Royal College of Physicians report E-cigarettes and Harm Reduction: An Evidence Review for being an incomplete and selective review of the literature in three areas — underestimating the magnitude of disease risk caused by e-cigarettes, ignoring the large body of real world evidence that e-cigarettesContinue reading “The RCP got this right: Promotion of tobacco harm reduction is playing right into the tobacco industry’s hands”

Smokers who use e-cigs as for smoking cessation are more likely to end up dual users than to “switch completely” or stop smoking and vaping

E-cigarette enthusiasts, including the FDA and the NHS and others in England, and some in New Zealand and Canadian governments continue to promote “switching completely” from cigarettes to e-cigarettes as a form of harm reduction. I just found another paper that shows that the reality is that adult smokers who use e-cigarettes as a smokingContinue reading “Smokers who use e-cigs as for smoking cessation are more likely to end up dual users than to “switch completely” or stop smoking and vaping”

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”

Genetic evidence that e-cigarettes increase cancer (and other disease) risk among young adults

E-cigarette advocates — as well as regulators like the FDA — are fond of pointing out that nicotine is not a carcinogen (chemical that causes cancer) and noting that because they do not involve combustion, e-cigarettes do not deliver many carcinogenic chemicals produced by burning cigarettes. A new paper by Stella Tommasi , Ahmad BesaratiniaContinue reading “Genetic evidence that e-cigarettes increase cancer (and other disease) risk among young adults”

Criticism of our meta-analysis of e-cigarettes and disease and our response is published

NEJM Evidence has published two letters to the editor that raised questions about our meta-analysis, Population-Based Disease Odds for E-Cigarettes and Dual Use versus Cigarettes that concluded that for cardiovascular disease, stroke and metabolic disorder e-cigarette risks are similar to cigarettes and for respiratory and oral disease, while lower risk than cigarettes, the risks areContinue reading “Criticism of our meta-analysis of e-cigarettes and disease and our response is published”