As of February 22, 2024, the FDA was continuing to embrace the idea that there is a “continuum of risk” with combusted tobacco as the riskiest and e-cigarettes being substantially less risky. As a result, FDA promotes e-cigarettes as a way for smokers to reduce risk. This view is based on the fact that e-cigarettesContinue reading “FDA needs to reconsider its promotion of the “continuum of risk” for e-cigarettes”
Category Archives: vaping
E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone
It is an article of faith among e-cigarette advocates that they are substantially less risky than cigarettes. Rather than being based on the actual associations between e-cigarette use and disease, this belief is based on the fact that e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco, so avoid the toxic combustion products that cigarettes produce. In recent years,Continue reading “E-cigs have similar risks to cigs for some diseases and nearly as high for others. Dual use riskier than smoking alone”
Relevant to COP10: Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame
Yogi Hendlin, Eileen Han and Pam Ling’s new paper Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame provides a detailed analysis of how the multinational tobacco companies have developed and used the companies efforts to reposition themselves a source for “clean” nicotine while simultaneously maintaining and expanding their sales of cigarettes and other “traditional” tobacco products whereContinue reading “Relevant to COP10: Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame”
COP10 delegates need to base decisions on latest e-cig evidence, not the same old studies e-cig advocates promote
In the lead up to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Tenth Conference of the Parties that starts today, advocates for e-cigarettes and other “reduced harm” tobacco products have been busy again arguing that delegates should embrace these products. In reviewing some of this material, I have been struck by the fact that theirContinue reading “COP10 delegates need to base decisions on latest e-cig evidence, not the same old studies e-cig advocates promote”
First 280,000 Juul documents publicly available, millions more to come
One of the key provisions of North Carolina’s 2021 settlement with Juul was that the documents produced in litigation would be made available to the public. The settlement required that the documents be made available through a depository run by a North Carolina university. To accomplish this, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University LibrariesContinue reading “First 280,000 Juul documents publicly available, millions more to come”
Replacing 50% of cigs with ecigs or HTP had no lung benefit
E-cigarette advocates and tobacco harm reduction advocates, as well as the FDA, have long promoted a 50% reduction in cigarette smoking as a positive outcome when assessing the value of e-cigarettes (recent example). The FDA’s use of this benchmark is particularly surprising because in 2021 FDA scientists published a meta-analysis of the effects of smokers reducingContinue reading “Replacing 50% of cigs with ecigs or HTP had no lung benefit”
Cochrane Collaborative concludes that e-cigs as medicines help a few people shop smoking (again); still ignoring differences between medicines and consumer products as well as dual use
On January 8, 2024, the Cochrane Collaborative published yet another meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concluding that e-cigarettes help a few people stop smoking. While industry and other pro-e-cigarette interests will make a big deal of this, the fact is that there is nothing new here. Here is their primary conclusion: There is high certaintyContinue reading “Cochrane Collaborative concludes that e-cigs as medicines help a few people shop smoking (again); still ignoring differences between medicines and consumer products as well as dual use”
E-cigarettes associated with heart attacks in never smokers
Since we published the first study demonstrating that e-cigarette use was associated with higher odds of having had a heart attack, e-cigarette advocates have argued that this association was an artifact of current or former cigarette smoking or “reverse causation” due to smokers starting to use e-cigarettes after they had a heart attack. Now TalalContinue reading “E-cigarettes associated with heart attacks in never smokers”
Youth living in vapefree homes much less likely to use e-cigs
While the reason for enacting smokefree laws and implementing voluntary smokefree policies has been to protect people from secondhand smoke, a well-established side effect is that they help adult smokers quit and help prevent youth smoking (laws, home policies). Now Jeremy Staff and his colleagues have shown that kids living in vapefree households are muchContinue reading “Youth living in vapefree homes much less likely to use e-cigs”
Ecigs increased health costs by $15.1 billion in 2018
Until now we have not had direct estimates of the costs of treating the excess disease that e-cigarettes cause. Now, Yingning Wang and her UCSF colleagues have published Healthcare utilisation and expenditures attributable to current e-cigarette use among US adults that applies the same well-established methods they have used to estimate the medical costs of smokingContinue reading “Ecigs increased health costs by $15.1 billion in 2018”
Stanton Glantz blog 