As more and more states legalize adult-use cannabis, the issue of marijuana lounges and other forms of onsite consumption have come to the fore. Like with tobacco smoke, the levels of indoor air pollution when people are smoking (or vaping) marijuana are substantial. The American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), whichContinue reading “Onsite cannabis consumption laws rarely ensure clean indoor air”
Category Archives: vaping
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”
“The Devil’s Playbook” is a great read
My definition of a good book on tobacco is that I learn things I didn’t already know from reading it. Lauren Etter’s new book, The Devil’s Playbook, easily meets and surpasses this standard. Deeply researched beginning with key events in the 1980s, she documents the rise and decline on Juul e-cigarettes and how, at leastContinue reading ““The Devil’s Playbook” is a great read”
Thai youth ecig use stays low since country banned imports and sales
While countries like the USA struggle with exploding e-cig use among youth, in Thailand, which bans the import and sales of e-cigarettes (which under Thai law also includes heated tobacco products), youth use remains stable and low. Roengrudee Patanavanich and colleagues (including me) recently published “Use of E-Cigarettes and Associated Factors among Youth in Thailand”Continue reading “Thai youth ecig use stays low since country banned imports and sales”
ecig use during pregnancy increases risk of low birth weight baby
Annette Regan and colleagues recently expanded the range of adverse health effects associated with e-cigarette use to low birth weight babies for women who smoked during pregnancy. In their paper “Adverse Birth Outcomes Associated With Prepregnancy and Prenatal Electronic Cigarette Use,” published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, they used data from the national PRAMS (Pregnancy RiskContinue reading “ecig use during pregnancy increases risk of low birth weight baby”
Juul fails to properly report clinical trial results
Drug and medical device companies have a long history of selective reporting the results of clinical trials used to test their new products and even of burying results they don’t like. In an effort to make it harder for companies to manipulate reporting of results, the federal government (NIH) created ClinicalTrials.gov, where companies and othersContinue reading “Juul fails to properly report clinical trial results”
More details on how menthol helps Big Tobacco keep kids hooked
Keeping menthol in cigarettes (and other tobacco products) has been a priority for the tobacco companies ever since they got it exempted from the characterizing flavor ban in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that gave the FDA jurisdiction over tobacco products. The already-strong case for banning menthol just got stronger withContinue reading “More details on how menthol helps Big Tobacco keep kids hooked”
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”
We know a lot about how e-cigarettes cause disease
The evidence on the health effects of e-cigarettes was the subject of two recently published reviews that focus on cardiovascular, pulmonary and immunologic effects of e-cigarettes. These reviews complement earlier reviews on the pulmonary effects of e-cigarettes, e-cigarettes and smoking cessation, and the gateway effect for smoking among youth and young adults. Taken together theseContinue reading “We know a lot about how e-cigarettes cause disease”
Growing international consensus (except UK) on dangers of e-cigs
Recently, Cynthia Callard of Physicians for a Smokefree Canada posted a blog commenting on three reports on vaping issued last week by the European Union, the WHO and the UK Royal College of Physicians. The EU and WHO reports reflect in part a growing consensus that: There are harms from e-cigarettes, especially harms to theContinue reading “Growing international consensus (except UK) on dangers of e-cigs”
Stanton Glantz blog 