JHU Public Health on Call podcast on study comparing e-cig and cig disease risks

The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health “Public Health on Call” podcast did an episode on our paper comparing the risks of e-cigarettes and cigarettes. You can listen to it here.

Why is the Royal College of Physicians concluding e-cigs reduce harm while ignoring the substantial associations between e-cigs and actual disease?

On April 18, 2024 the UK Royal College of Physicians published E-cigarettes and Harm Reduction: An Evidence Review, the latest in a series of reports it has published since 2007 endorsing e-cigarettes for harm reduction.  The report covers a wide range of topics, including assessing the health risks of e-cigarettes, the central question on whetherContinue reading “Why is the Royal College of Physicians concluding e-cigs reduce harm while ignoring the substantial associations between e-cigs and actual disease?”

Why is the FDA still pushing e-cigs as lower risk based on ancient evidence?

Today (April 16, 2024) the FDA released a new web page on The Relative Risks of Tobacco Products that irresponsibly promotes e-cigarettes as a lower risk alternative to cigarettes. This recommendation is based on the 2018 National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report on e-cigarettes that concluded that e-cigarettes reduce exposure to some toxicContinue reading “Why is the FDA still pushing e-cigs as lower risk based on ancient evidence?”

Read the behind scenes story of the 1964 Surgeon General Report on Smoking and Health

The 1964 Report on Smoking and Health represented a turning point in the history of tobacco in the United States and the world. Now Don Shopland [photo above], who at the time was an eighteen year-old, “newly working at the National Library of Medicine,” who found himself moonlighting for the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee thatContinue reading “Read the behind scenes story of the 1964 Surgeon General Report on Smoking and Health”

NOW OPEN ACCESS: E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone

NEJM Evidence has graciously made our recent paper, “Population-Based Disease Odds for E-Cigarettes and Dual Use versus Cigarettes,” open access so that anyone can read and download it for free. As described in more detail in my blog post on the paper, it uses data from 107 population epidemiology studies of the association between e-cigaretteContinue reading “NOW OPEN ACCESS: E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone”

FDA needs to reconsider its promotion of the “continuum of risk” for e-cigarettes

As of February 22, 2024, the FDA was continuing to embrace the idea that there is a “continuum of risk” with combusted tobacco as the riskiest and e-cigarettes being substantially less risky. As a result, FDA promotes e-cigarettes as a way for smokers to reduce risk. This view is based on the fact that e-cigarettesContinue reading “FDA needs to reconsider its promotion of the “continuum of risk” for e-cigarettes”

Cannabis use linked to increase in heart attack and stroke risk

Many people think cannabis is “medicine” and so ignore its heath effects. Abra Jeffers, Amy Byers, Salome Keyhani and I just published Association of cannabis use with cardiovascular outcomes among US adults in the Journal of the American Heart Association that found that cannabis use is associated with adverse cardiovascular events with heavier use (moreContinue reading “Cannabis use linked to increase in heart attack and stroke risk”

E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone

It is an article of faith among e-cigarette advocates that they are substantially less risky than cigarettes. Rather than being based on the actual associations between e-cigarette use and disease, this belief is based on the fact that e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco, so avoid the toxic combustion products that cigarettes produce. In recent years,Continue reading “E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone”

Two new studies link marijuana with heart disease, including in non-tobacco smokers

Two papers are being presented today (November 13, 2023) at the American Heart Association Annual Scientific Sessions that show marijuana use is associated with increased cardiovascular disease. The first, Daily Marijuana Use is Associated With Incident Heart Failure: “All of Us” Research Program reports a 34% increased risk of incident heart failure in daily recreationalContinue reading “Two new studies link marijuana with heart disease, including in non-tobacco smokers”

First longitudinal evidence linking e-cig use and death

Shauna Goldberg Scott and her colleagues recently published the first longitudinal evidence (where people are followed forward in time, the strongest kind of epidemiological study) showing that e-cigarette use was associated with increased risk of death. Their paper, Demographic, Clinical, and Behavioral Factors Associated With Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Use in a Large Cohort inContinue reading “First longitudinal evidence linking e-cig use and death”