The evidence that comprehensive flavor bans are followed by drops in tobacco consumption keeps piling up. A new study by Giovanni Appolon, and colleagues, Local Flavored Tobacco Bans and Youth Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Use, of 2.8 million California middle and high school students across 483 local jurisdictions found that local flavored tobacco bans thatContinue reading “Local flavor bans followed by big drops in youth e-cig use”
Tag Archives: news
MAHA claims that nicotine is good for you echo decades of tobacco industry propaganda
The New York Times recently highlighted how many “Make America Healthy Again” influencers are promoting the benefits of nicotine, including reversing Alzheimer’s Disease and improving cognition. While we don’t know what role the tobacco companies are playing in this latest resurgence of claims that nicotine is a beneficial substance that poses little or no risk,Continue reading “MAHA claims that nicotine is good for you echo decades of tobacco industry propaganda”
FDA adds 18 chemicals to list of harmful constituents in tobacco products, including propelyene glycol and vegetable glycerine
The FDA is required to maintain a list of “Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents” (HPHC) in tobacco products. The original list was released in 2012 and was mostly toxicants in cigarette and other tobacco smoke and smokeless tobacco. In particular, this list did not include important compounds in e-cigarettes and other “new” tobacco products. InContinue reading “FDA adds 18 chemicals to list of harmful constituents in tobacco products, including propelyene glycol and vegetable glycerine”
Nicotine pouches maintain the nicotine market for tobacco companies
Nicotine pouches (like ZYN and on!) are being touted by some advocates as a “harm reduction” alternative to smoking cigarettes. Kelvin Choi and colleagues examined whether this happens in real life in their new paper “Patterns of tobacco product use among US adults who use nicotine pouches and the association between nicotine pouch use andContinue reading “Nicotine pouches maintain the nicotine market for tobacco companies”
DOJ should have been able to easily release properly redacted Epstein files by December 19, 2025 based on our experience managing the UCSF Industry Documents Library
The issue of redactions – both redacting names of victims and not redacting participants in Jeffery Epstein’s “social circle” — documents has been in the news. There have also been questions about why it took so long for DOJ to release around 3.5 million pages of documents, plus about 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. WorkingContinue reading “DOJ should have been able to easily release properly redacted Epstein files by December 19, 2025 based on our experience managing the UCSF Industry Documents Library”
FDA broke the law when it did not allow TPSAC to vote on whether to allow PMI to make modified risk claims for ZYN
The FDA held a meeting of its Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) on January 22, 2026 to discuss Swedish Match’s application to make the modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) claim for its ZYN flavored nicotine pouches “Using ZYN instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer,Continue reading “FDA broke the law when it did not allow TPSAC to vote on whether to allow PMI to make modified risk claims for ZYN”
The gateway has two doors in England, too
With some notable exceptions. e-cigarettes have been embraced by British tobacco control advocates and public health authorities more enthusiastically than anywhere else in the world, including authorities at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and University College London (UCL). Now, Emily Banks, Andrew Bush, Charlotta Pisinger, and Sam Egger have published Signs of increased smokingContinue reading “The gateway has two doors in England, too”
FDA should not authorize marketing ZYN nicotine pouches as having lower risk because the claim is likely to be misinterpreted to mean ZYN has been approved by FDA for cessation and consumers do not understand that they need to switch completely to get the purported benefits
My colleagues at UCSF and Stanford have submitted this public comment to FDA opposing its approval of Swedish Match (owned by Philip Morris International) claim that ZYN is less dangerous because it will be misunderstood as saying FDA endorsed ZYN (PDF). The TPSAC tracking number is mk4-kxvh-7j9n and the general docket tracking number is mk5-q1p5-yauhContinue reading “FDA should not authorize marketing ZYN nicotine pouches as having lower risk because the claim is likely to be misinterpreted to mean ZYN has been approved by FDA for cessation and consumers do not understand that they need to switch completely to get the purported benefits”
FDA should not authorize marketing flavored ZYN nicotine pouches as modified risk products because Swedish Match failed to provide evidence specific to ZYN demonstrating that they will benefit the health of the population, including youth
My colleagues at UCSF and Stanford have submitted this public comment to FDA opposing its approval of Swedish Match (owned by Philip Morris International) claim that ZYN is less dangerous (PDF). The TPSAC tracking number is mk4-k6rg-rvku and the general docket tracking number is mk5-q1p5-yauh on Regulations.gov. Here is the comment: FDA’s should not authorizeContinue reading “FDA should not authorize marketing flavored ZYN nicotine pouches as modified risk products because Swedish Match failed to provide evidence specific to ZYN demonstrating that they will benefit the health of the population, including youth”
New paper by Hajek group presents misleading incomplete results about dual use when using e-cigs as cessation aid
One concern about giving smokers e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid is that doing so instantly converts them into dual users (smoking both cigarettes and e-cigarettes), which adds the risks of e-cigarette use to cigarette use. Peter Hajek’s group just published Patterns of e-Cigarette Use and Smoking Cessation Outcomes: Secondary Analysis of a Large RandomisedContinue reading “New paper by Hajek group presents misleading incomplete results about dual use when using e-cigs as cessation aid”
Stanton Glantz blog 