Category Archives: Uncategorized

I just came upon Real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids: A population survey in England with 12-month follow-up, 2015-2020 that uses the UK Smoking Toolkit Study to quantify the effectiveness of e-cigarettes and various medical therapies on smoking cessation among smokers were were trying to quit. In this longitudinal study Sarah Jackson and colleagues followedContinue reading “Real-world British study shows e-cigs don’t help motivated smokers quit”

I have published four earlier blog posts (1, 2, 3, 4) describing how RJR’s “non-menthol” cigarettes violate California’s law prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products. Now my colleague Lauren Lempert has submitted a complaint directly to the California Attorney General. Here is a copy of her submission. How long will it take AG RobContinue reading “Complaint about RJR flouting CA ban on sale of flavored tobacco products submitted to AG”

The Reagan-Udall Foundation report on FDA Center for Tobacco Products procedures is now available. It contains recommendations for improving FDA CTP operations, but recognizes that two of the serious impediments that the CTP faces are the huge number of applications for new products and aggressive litigation by the industry. Several recommendations deal with improving transparencyContinue reading “FDA should build on its menthol e-cig decision to implement Reagan-Udall recommendation to triage assessment of new tobacco products”

While I am best known for my work on tobacco, I also played an important role in budgetary matters at the University of California, including chairing the Systemwide Committee on Planning and Budget in 2005-6. At that time, we predicted the problems that would follow from UC President Bob Dynes’ accession to then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’sContinue reading “Problems that led to UC strike have their roots in Schwarzenegger’s pressure to privatize UC”

After the California legislature and the governor signed a state law ending the sale of almost all flavored tobacco products including menthol, in 2020, the tobacco companies spent $22 million to force a voter referendum. That suspended the law for two years until the voters could weigh in. Now they have, crushing Big Tobacco withContinue reading “Calif voters overwhelmingly confirm ban on flavored tobacco products”

E-cigarette advocates like to point out that because there is no combustion, e-cigarettes expose users to lower levels of many carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals).  Even so, there are still some carcinogens in e-cigarette aerosol exposure to e-cigarette aerosol damages DNA and reduces repair in animal and human cells and causes cancer in animals.  Now there isContinue reading “First epidemiological evidence linking e-cigs to cancer in people”

Caleb Alexander, together with colleagues at Johns Hopkins, UCSF and I just published “The Opioid Industry Documents Archive: A Living Digital Repository” in American Journal of Public Health. This paper describes the growing Opioid Industry Documents Archive that is part of the UCSF Industry Documents Library and outlines opportunities for research and public education withContinue reading “Here’s an approachable introduction to the growing collection of industry insider documents on opioids, free to all”

Last February, the Texas federal judge hearing the tobacco companies’ lawsuit against the graphic warning labels Congress ordered the FDA to put on cigarettes in 2009 delayed the implementation date until April 2023, after several such delays, first in May 2020. By the way, the judge didn’t actually rule against the FDA, he just putContinue reading “Texas Trump judge puts off effective date for FDA graphic cigarette warning labels again, this time until Jul 8, 2023”

Most of the research on the effects of local and state bans on the sales of flavored tobacco products have assessed sales rather than actual use by youth. (They consistently showed big drops in sales of flavored tobacco products.) Summer Hawkins and colleagues at Boston College published “Flavoured tobacco product restrictions in Massachusetts associated withContinue reading “Direct evidence that flavor sales bans substantially reduce youth cigarette and e-cigarette use”

The evidence is rapidly accumulating that e-cigs are harm enhancing rather than harm reducing. Accepting for the sake of argument, even if one accepts claims that e-cigs are less toxic than conventional cigarettes, for e-cigs to be harm reducing smokers who use them need to stop cigarettes — what the tobacco companies and FDA callContinue reading “Smokers do not “switch completely” to e-cigs; e-cigarettes cut quitting by 83% in smokers trying to quit”