In 2023 RJR Tobacco sued California AG Rob Bonta trying to block his decision that RJR’s “non-menthol” cigarettes (example1, example2) were included in California’s prohibition on the sale of flavored tobacco products. RJR argued that these products were not “flavored” because the cooling sensation they delivered was provided with the chemical WS-3, which did notContinue reading “RJR reports Calif effort to get rid of “non-menthol” cigs are working”
Category Archives: tobacco companies
Forewarned is for-armed: Tobacco, food and alcohol industry efforts to intimidate health advocates and researchers
As someone who has spent decades doing public health research and advocacy on tobacco and other issues, I have been the object of several attacks and intimidation efforts, including, among other things, attacks on my professional credibility, litigation, and pressure on funders. Fortunately, thanks to a strong support network, including from the University of California,Continue reading “Forewarned is for-armed: Tobacco, food and alcohol industry efforts to intimidate health advocates and researchers”
Historical and political context for Philip Morris International’s continuing medical education courses on harm reduction: Implications for current product regulation
In mid-2024 Drs. Robert Jackler, Pam Ling and others learned that the for-profit medical company Medcape was offering a continuing medical education course on tobacco harm reduction sponsored by Philip Morris International that promoted the industry position that smokers could reduce risk by switching from cigarettes to “less risky” products, such as smokeless tobacco. MostContinue reading “Historical and political context for Philip Morris International’s continuing medical education courses on harm reduction: Implications for current product regulation”
UCSF adds 151k Juul documents to Truth Tobacco Documents Library, bringing total to 2.9 million Juul documents
The UCSF Industry Documents Library just released 151.079 new Juul documents, bringing the total to 2,880,772 documents in the JUUL Labs collection and 17,893,389 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 partnership with the UniversityContinue reading “UCSF adds 151k Juul documents to Truth Tobacco Documents Library, bringing total to 2.9 million Juul documents”
E-cig advocates publish results showing e-cig users have more respiratory symptoms than nonsmokers
E-cigarette advocate Riccardo Polosa, along with pro-harm reduction colleagues from around the world, recently published Respiratory symptoms among e-cigarette users without an established smoking history in the VERITAS cohort. Their paper presents strong evidence that sole e-cigarette users (i.e., people who are not also smoking cigarettes) are significantly more likely to experience respiratory symptoms thanContinue reading “E-cig advocates publish results showing e-cig users have more respiratory symptoms than nonsmokers”
FDA & NIH must support research to increase tobacco cessation reach and engagement to address populations disproportionately harmed by Big Tobacco
My colleagues and I submitted this public commento to FDA and NIH regarding their priorities for tobacco cessatio research. The Regulations.gov tracking number is m3p-2qiq-zm6w. A PDF version is available here. While it was not publicly available when we were preparing this comment, a lot of the suggestions overlap or complement the recently-released Surgeon GeneralContinue reading “FDA & NIH must support research to increase tobacco cessation reach and engagement to address populations disproportionately harmed by Big Tobacco”
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”
Calif updates state ban on sales of flavored tobacco products to close loophole and strengthen enforcement: A great model for others
When California passed its law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products in 2020, including menthol cigarettes, RJR and other tobacco interests forced a referendum to try and block the law. Voters upheld the law in 2022, and it went into effect. This law prohibited retail sales of tobacco products with a “characterizing flavor,” looselyContinue reading “Calif updates state ban on sales of flavored tobacco products to close loophole and strengthen enforcement: A great model for others”
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