E-cig advocates and regulators including the FDA continue to assume that e-cigarettes pose much lower cancer risks than cigarettes because e-cigarettes deliver much lower levels of cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens) produced by burning tobacco. This oversimplified logic ignores that we now understand a lot more about the cancer process and the fact that there are complexContinue reading “We know a lot about how ecigs promote cancer metastasis”
Tag Archives: health
E-cig advocates publish results showing e-cig users have more respiratory symptoms than nonsmokers
E-cigarette advocate Riccardo Polosa, along with pro-harm reduction colleagues from around the world, recently published Respiratory symptoms among e-cigarette users without an established smoking history in the VERITAS cohort. Their paper presents strong evidence that sole e-cigarette users (i.e., people who are not also smoking cigarettes) are significantly more likely to experience respiratory symptoms thanContinue reading “E-cig advocates publish results showing e-cig users have more respiratory symptoms than nonsmokers”
FDA & NIH must support research to increase tobacco cessation reach and engagement to address populations disproportionately harmed by Big Tobacco
My colleagues and I submitted this public commento to FDA and NIH regarding their priorities for tobacco cessatio research. The Regulations.gov tracking number is m3p-2qiq-zm6w. A PDF version is available here. While it was not publicly available when we were preparing this comment, a lot of the suggestions overlap or complement the recently-released Surgeon GeneralContinue reading “FDA & NIH must support research to increase tobacco cessation reach and engagement to address populations disproportionately harmed by Big Tobacco”
New Surgeon General Report highlights how tobacco industry promotes health disparities, supports menthol and flavor bans and highlights cannabis crossover
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy just released a new Surgeon Genera Report, “Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities—A Report of the Surgeon General” (Press release). Surgeon General Reports, which, like this one, often take years to complete, represent the broad (if cautious) consensus on a scientific topic. Hundreds of people are involved in drafting, reviewing,Continue reading “New Surgeon General Report highlights how tobacco industry promotes health disparities, supports menthol and flavor bans and highlights cannabis crossover”
Calif Dept of Public Health releases important report presenting policy recommendations that account for the fact that high potency cannabis now dominates the market
On October 4,2024, the California Department of Public Health its REPORT ANDRECOMMENDATIONS OF THE HIGH POTENCY CANNABIS THINK TANK TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA prepared by an independent panel of 13 scientist and clinician cannabis experts. It documents the fact that high-potency cannabis has overtaken California and national cannabis markets and summarizes the serious associatedContinue reading “Calif Dept of Public Health releases important report presenting policy recommendations that account for the fact that high potency cannabis now dominates the market”
Secondhand cannabis and tobacco smoke both increase cancer risk
The pro-cannabis advocacy group California NORML recently reported that it had successfully kept an exemption for cannabis use in the smokefree multiunit housing provision of the draft ordinance that the Oakland City Council approved on first reading on November 12, 2024. Their posting includes two inaccurate statements dismissing the cancer risks of secondhand cannabis andContinue reading “Secondhand cannabis and tobacco smoke both increase cancer risk”
Oakland City Council should advance law making bar patios smoke-free and make multi-unit housing tobacco and cannabis smoke-free at November 12 hearing
On November 12, the Oakland City Council will hold a public hearing on a proposed Oakland Smoke-Free Bar Patios and Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing Ordinance introduced by Councilperson Dan Kalb. The ordinance as proposed would close a loophole that allows smoking on outdoor bar patios and also make multi-unit housing tobacco smoke-free. Unfortunately, the current draft ordinanceContinue reading “Oakland City Council should advance law making bar patios smoke-free and make multi-unit housing tobacco and cannabis smoke-free at November 12 hearing”
Adult cannabis use increases significantly following medical and recreational legalization
Vira Pravosud, several UCSF colleagues and I just published Cannabis legalization and changes in cannabis and tobacco/nicotine use and co-use in a national cohort of U.S. adults during 2017-2021 in the International Journal of Drug Policy that adds to the evidence that legalizing medical and recreational cannabis is followed by increased use among adults. InContinue reading “Adult cannabis use increases significantly following medical and recreational legalization”
Canadian health groups should press for rejection of proposed provincial tobacco litigation settlement
On October 17, 2024, the proposed terms for settlement of longstanding provincial litigation against the tobacco industry were made public. It is probably the worst settlement of tobacco litigation anywhere in the world to date. All it does is provides one-time money for the provinces to reimburse them for some of the medical costs incurredContinue reading “Canadian health groups should press for rejection of proposed provincial tobacco litigation settlement”
The RCP got this right: Promotion of tobacco harm reduction is playing right into the tobacco industry’s hands
I previously published three detailed critiques of the 2024 UK Royal College of Physicians report E-cigarettes and Harm Reduction: An Evidence Review for being an incomplete and selective review of the literature in three areas — underestimating the magnitude of disease risk caused by e-cigarettes, ignoring the large body of real world evidence that e-cigarettesContinue reading “The RCP got this right: Promotion of tobacco harm reduction is playing right into the tobacco industry’s hands”
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