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”

More evidence that ecigs cause lung disease in youth like cigs; dual use is worse

Richa Mukerjee and colleagues’ new paper, “ENDS, cigarettes, and respiratory illness: Longitudinal associations among US youth,” adds strong evidence to the conclusion that e-cigarettes cause lung disease (bronchitis, pneumonia, or chronic cough) among young people (age 12-17). They used 6 years of longitudinal data (where you follow the same people forward in time) to measureContinue reading “More evidence that ecigs cause lung disease in youth like cigs; dual use is worse”

WHO issues important call to action on ecigs

The World Health Organization has released a call to action and supporting technical note that provides detailed guidance for countries on how to battle the e-cigarette epidemic. The WHO both supports countries who have prohibited the import and sale of e-cigarettes and provides detailed evidence-based guidance for those who allow sale of e-cigarettes. The Biden WhiteContinue reading “WHO issues important call to action on ecigs”