Two important memos dated October 25, 2022 detail internal FDA deliberations about how FDA considers specific menthol e-cigarettes in the context of the larger scientific literature on menthol. The two memos, one from the leadership of the Office of Science and another from Center for Tobacco Products Director Brian King and Deputy Director Michelle MitalContinue reading “A big step forward: FDA’s assessment of individual menthol e-cigs lines up with the scientific evidence”
Category Archives: youth
E-cig advocates criticize CDC for promoting health misinformation with their own misinformation
E-cigarette advocates Michael Pesko, Michael Cummings, Clifford Douglas, Jonathan Foulds, Thomas Miller, Nancy Rigotti, and Kenneth E. Warner recently published an editorial “United States public health officials need to correct e-cigarette health misinformation” criticizing the CDC for promoting what they claim is misinformation on e-cigarettes at the same time CDC was highlighting the dangers of health misinformation. They “focus upon twoContinue reading “E-cig advocates criticize CDC for promoting health misinformation with their own misinformation”
Big Tobacco Execs Celebrate Teen Vaping With Epic PR Song
The Onion, working with truth, produced “Inspiring! Big Tobacco Execs Celebrate Teen Vaping With Epic PR Song.” Watch this fun video here. This is part of a digital media buy in which the Onion offers Truth Initiative the opportunity to co-create a creative asset that helps deliver truth’s message in the Onion’s signature satirical style.
Kids who use ecigs to quit quit less
The discussion of whether or not e-cigarettes help smokers quit has been focused on adults. All the discussion of e-cigarettes and kids has focused on the massive success of e-cigarettes in expanding the nicotine epidemic by attracting kids. There has also been some focus on the well-documented “gateway effect” in which kids who start nicotineContinue reading “Kids who use ecigs to quit quit less”
Did we just have a secondhand smoke moment for fentanyl?
From time to time public health professionals, physicians, and policy makers have asked me what lessons from tobacco control apply to the drug problem. I have had a hard time answering this question because the most important change in the tobacco debate — the emergence of the health effects of secondhand smoke and concerns byContinue reading “Did we just have a secondhand smoke moment for fentanyl?”
Surprise! Reynolds & friends sue to block Calif flavored tobacco ban
Like clockwork the Big Tobacco (RJ Reynolds and others) sued California to block implementation of the state’s ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products (Proposition 31). This is not surprising since the tobacco companies have a long history of filing unsuccessful lawsuits to scare local and state governments and slow things down. Unlike normalContinue reading “Surprise! Reynolds & friends sue to block Calif flavored tobacco ban”
Kids more addicted to e-cigs since Juul introduced protonated nicotine
One of the big innovations Juul pioneered was adding acid to the liquid in e-cigarettes to make the nicotine aerosol less alkaline and easier to inhale. This so-called protonated nicotine allows the e-cigarettes to deliver higher doses of the addictive drug nicotine. Therefore, we would expect to see increasing measures of addiction among e-cigarette usingContinue reading “Kids more addicted to e-cigs since Juul introduced protonated nicotine”
FDA pulls some menthol e-cigs off the market: What about the rest?
Last week FDA took the important step of denying permission for Logic Technology to market is menthol e-cigarettes. In its press release, FDA specifically recognized the attraction of menthol e-cigarettes to youth: For non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes, including menthol-flavored e-cigarettes, existing evidence demonstrates a known and substantial risk with regard to youth appeal, uptake and use. RecentContinue reading “FDA pulls some menthol e-cigs off the market: What about the rest?”
New report explains menthol marketing from the beginning and why we need to end it
Robert Jackler and his colleagues at the Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising recently released “ADVERTISING CREATED & CONTINUES TO DRIVE THE MENTHOL TOBACCO MARKET: Methods Used by The Industry to Target Youth, Women, & Black Americans,” an encyclopedic history of menthol marketing in the United States. Jackler and his colleagues complement aContinue reading “New report explains menthol marketing from the beginning and why we need to end it”
FDA and CDC release data highlighting FDA’s continuing failure to protect kids from ecigs
The FDA and CDC just published the first results from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco survey in the CDC’s MMWR. The 2022 survey shows that 1 in 4 youth use menthol e-cigs, further strengthening the case that FDA should end its de facto authorization of menthol e-cigs Specifically, 26.6% of kids say menthol is theirContinue reading “FDA and CDC release data highlighting FDA’s continuing failure to protect kids from ecigs”