Most of the discussion of the effects of e-cigarette use on smoking has focused on their gateway effect among youth (they are) and whether e-cigs help smokers quit (as consumer products they do not) . There has been much less attention to how e-cigarettes affect the risk of relapse among former smokers. But now thereContinue reading “Ecigs double risk of relapse among former smokers”
Category Archives: vaping
Surprise! Juul publishes a paper concluding that e-cigs save lives
At a time that the FDA is deciding whether to authorize continued sale of Juul e-cigs a group of Juul scientists have published “Modeling the population health impact of E.N.D.S in the U.S.” that concludes that “the availability of ENDS [electronic nicotine delivery systems, which includes e-cigs] is projected to reduce smoking and prevent 2.5Continue reading “Surprise! Juul publishes a paper concluding that e-cigs save lives”
More evidence that dual use is worse than smoking
Krisha Reddy and colleagues just published “ Respiratory Symptom Incidence Among People Using Electronic Cigarettes, Combustible Tobacco, or Both” in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that showed that dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes doubled the odds of developing respiratory symptoms (aOR 2.22, 95% CI 1.79-2.75). This was a statistically significantly biggerContinue reading “More evidence that dual use is worse than smoking”
Exposure to e-cigs in music videos associated with more e-cig use in real life
It has been well-established for over a decade that exposure to onscreen smoking in movies causes kids to smoke. Now, Anuja Majumundar and colleagues at USC have used similar methods as in the early movie studies to show that the more e-cig promotions young adults (age 18-24) see in music videos the more likely theyContinue reading “Exposure to e-cigs in music videos associated with more e-cig use in real life”
Marijuana joints produce 3.5 times as much secondhand smoke as a Marlboro
Tobacco cigarettes are such strong sources of indoor air pollution that the only way to get acceptable indoor air quality is to make spaces smokefree. Now, Wayne Ott and colleagues have done a real-world study of the levels of pollution caused by smoking a joint (or a bong or vaping cannabis) and found that marijuanaContinue reading “Marijuana joints produce 3.5 times as much secondhand smoke as a Marlboro”
The biological evidence of e-cig dangers keeps piling up
Rachel Keith and Aruni Bhatnagar just published “Cardiorespiratory and Immunologic Effects of Electronic Cigarettes,” which is a nice overview of the growing biological evidence base that e-cigarettes have a lot of adverse health effects, many similar to cigarettes. This material is particularly important because the people who continue to promote e-cigarettes for “harm reduction” continueContinue reading “The biological evidence of e-cig dangers keeps piling up”
You can watch the recorded UCSF Tobacco Center Billion Lives Symposium online
The program is here and the whole symposium can be watched here.
Youth e-cig use triples likelihood of daily cig smoking
The evidence that e-cigarettes are a gateway for smoking is strong and consistent. Now John Pierce and his colleagues have made that connection even stronger by showing that e-cigarette use strongly predicts daily cigarette smoking. (Previous studies measured current cigarette smoking, meaning in the past 30 days.) Their paper, “Use of E-cigarettes and Other TobaccoContinue reading “Youth e-cig use triples likelihood of daily cig smoking”
12 Senators ask FDA for details on ecig premarket review process
September 9, 2020 was the deadline for e-cigarette companies to submit their applications for premarket review to the FDA, a so-called premarket tobacco product application (PMTA). To date, FDA has approved a few PMTAs, most notably for Philip Morris’ IQOS heated tobacco product. The process has not been transparent and health groups and a publicContinue reading “12 Senators ask FDA for details on ecig premarket review process”
Good news: Youth e-cig use dropped in 2020
The CDC recently reported big drops in e-cigarette use between 2019 and 2020 (high school dropped from 27.5% to 19.6% and middle school dropped from 10.5% to 4.7%). As the figure above (courtesy of CDC.) shows, however, e-cig use is still very high, way above where cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use were nine years earlierContinue reading “Good news: Youth e-cig use dropped in 2020”