On January 8, 2024, the Cochrane Collaborative published yet another meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concluding that e-cigarettes help a few people stop smoking. While industry and other pro-e-cigarette interests will make a big deal of this, the fact is that there is nothing new here. Here is their primary conclusion: There is high certaintyContinue reading “Cochrane Collaborative concludes that e-cigs as medicines help a few people shop smoking (again); still ignoring differences between medicines and consumer products as well as dual use”
Category Archives: smoking
Youth living in vapefree homes much less likely to use e-cigs
While the reason for enacting smokefree laws and implementing voluntary smokefree policies has been to protect people from secondhand smoke, a well-established side effect is that they help adult smokers quit and help prevent youth smoking (laws, home policies). Now Jeremy Staff and his colleagues have shown that kids living in vapefree households are muchContinue reading “Youth living in vapefree homes much less likely to use e-cigs”
Biden follows Obama and Trump by caving to industry pressure to delay menthol ban
Last week the Biden White House announced it was delaying a decision on the FDA’s well-reasoned product standards that would end the use of menthol in cigarettes and cigars, sparking outrage from leaders in the African American community: The White House is ignoring the real human cost of delay. Based on the Biden FDA’s analysis, everyContinue reading “Biden follows Obama and Trump by caving to industry pressure to delay menthol ban”
Drop in smoking not correlated with increased youth vaping
E-cigarette advocates have often argued that the increase in youth e-cigarette use is not a problem because it represents youth shifting from cigarettes. Earlier work based on analysis of trends and risk profiles in youth participating in the National Youth Tobacco Survey has contradicted this assertion, showing that e-cigarettes were attracting youth at low riskContinue reading “Drop in smoking not correlated with increased youth vaping”
Juul damages vascular function in people as much as a cigarette
There are several studies in people showing that earlier generations of e-cigarettes inhibit normal blood vessel function as well as studies in animals showing that this is the case for a wide variety of e-cigarettes, including Juul. Now Ziyad Ben Taleb and colleagues have shown that Juul inhibits blood vessel function just like cigarettes doContinue reading “Juul damages vascular function in people as much as a cigarette”
CTP should finalize the rules prohibiting menthol in cigarettes and prohibiting characterizing flavors in cigars, including menthol analogs
The fact that menthol is the most important additive in tobacco products is clear from the fact that the tobacco companies made exempting menthol from the ban on characterizing flavors in the original 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act as well as the companies ongoing (unsuccessful) efforts to fight local and state prohibitionsContinue reading “CTP should finalize the rules prohibiting menthol in cigarettes and prohibiting characterizing flavors in cigars, including menthol analogs”
FDA should finalize its updated list of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents by December 2023
In April 2022, I pointed out that one of the nerdy, but very important, parts of the FDA tobacco product regulatory process is the list of “Hazardous and Potentially Hazardous Compounds” (HPHC) list that FDA released in 2012. This list contains 93 bad chemicals — mostly carcinogens — that FDA identified as important when assessingContinue reading “FDA should finalize its updated list of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents by December 2023”
UC publishes oral history of Stanton Glantz: Putting Cardiovascular, Epidemiological, Economic, Political, and Policy Research into Action at UC San Francisco and Beyond
Today the Oral History Center at the University of California Bancroft Library published an oral history of my career, which is freely available to all. Beginning in elementary school in Cleveland, Ohio, the history follows me through college and gradual school. It discusses my work to develop the emergency protocols for the Apollo 5 missionContinue reading “UC publishes oral history of Stanton Glantz: Putting Cardiovascular, Epidemiological, Economic, Political, and Policy Research into Action at UC San Francisco and Beyond”
More evidence that England’s (and Canada and US FDA) enthusiastic approach to e-cigarettes is a disaster
In April 2023, David Hammond and colleagues published trends in high school use of e-cigarettes, cigarettes and other tobacco products in three e-cigarette-countries with policies to promote adult use of e-cigarettes for harm reduction: England, Canada and the US. In the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC) Youth Tobacco and Vaping Survey England, whichContinue reading “More evidence that England’s (and Canada and US FDA) enthusiastic approach to e-cigarettes is a disaster”
First US study linking e-cig use to metabolic syndrome; dual use worse than smoking
The list of diseases associated with e-cigarette use keeps growing. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions characterized by abdominal obesity, abnormal blood lipids, elevated blood pressure, and elevated blood sugar. Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and cancer among other outcomes. Earlier research from Korea found an association between e-cigaretteContinue reading “First US study linking e-cig use to metabolic syndrome; dual use worse than smoking”
Stanton Glantz blog 