After years of delays and deadline extensions that allowed thousands of e-cigarettes to remain on the market without any FDA premarket review and millions of kids to become nicotine addicts, health groups successfully sued FDA to force action. As a result, on July 11, 2019 Judge Paul Grimm ordered FDA to require premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) forContinue reading “FDA can and should prioritize youth over Juul and other e-cigs sales while it ponders the long term”
Category Archives: tobacco control programs
An unbalanced consideration of the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes
Several people have asked me what I thought of the recent essay by Balfour et al and a group of former presidents of the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, “Balancing consideration of the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes,” that argues that concerns over youth e-cigarette use needs to be “better balanced” against the valueContinue reading “An unbalanced consideration of the risks and benefits of e-cigarettes”
FDA’s recent press release raises 3 issues on how CTP is judging e-cigs
On August 26, 2021, FDA denied marketing orders for around 55,000 flavored e-cigarettes because the manufacturers had not made the case that authorizing the sale of these products was “appropriate for the protection of public health,” the standard in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that gave the FDA jurisdiction over tobaccoContinue reading “FDA’s recent press release raises 3 issues on how CTP is judging e-cigs”
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 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”
Is FDA going to ban menthol as a “characterizing flavor” or an ingredient? It matters
Today the FDA, with important support from the Biden Administration, announced that it would be moving to ban menthol as a “characterizing flavor” in cigarettes. In so doing, the FDA acted as requested in a Citizen’s Petition submitted by the Public Health Law Center in 2013. This is an important step forward. Today’s FDA letterContinue reading “Is FDA going to ban menthol as a “characterizing flavor” or an ingredient? It matters”
How to assess Biden’s actions on menthol
The FDA has to respond to the lawsuit brought by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and Action on Smoking and Health demanding a ban on menthol in cigarettes by April 29, 2021, the day after tomorrow. What the FDA is allowed to do will give a strong indication about how serious the BidenContinue reading “How to assess Biden’s actions on menthol”
California ban on flavored tobacco products will save lives & money, create jobs
Last year the California legislature passed SB793, which ended the sale of almost all flavored tobacco products. Led by RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris, the multinational tobacco companies spent over $20 million collecting signatures to force a referendum on the law. Forcing a referendum is an established tobacco industry strategy to shift the field ofContinue reading “California ban on flavored tobacco products will save lives & money, create jobs”
FDA should take Puff Bar at its word that it is not a tobacco product … and ban them as illegal drug delivery devices
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products, defined as products “made or derived from tobacco.” This means that any product that includes nicotine derived from tobacco is subject to FDA jurisdiction. There has been discussion in academic circles about nicotine delivery products being made fromContinue reading “FDA should take Puff Bar at its word that it is not a tobacco product … and ban them as illegal drug delivery devices”
Stanton Glantz blog 