October 31, 2019
After examining tobacco content in U.S. films since 2010, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has put renewed weight behind R-rating future films with tobacco.
A November 1, 2019, article in the CDC's premier journal, MMWR, reports that smoking incidents more than doubled in PG-13 films between 2010 and 2018 — years when major studios' tobacco depiction policies supposedly aimed to reduce on-screen smoking.
The CDC also noted that a recent wave of heavy-smoking biographical films wiped out substantial gains against smoking in the studios' large-budget, all-fiction films. The article adds that three-quarters of the smokers depicted in those "true story" films were invented characters, with no biographical basis.
The CDC frames the R-rating as an effective solution three times in the article, and states in its summary:
Continued efforts are needed to reduce tobacco incidents in movies, particularly in PG-13 biographical dramas. Giving movies with tobacco incidents an R-rating would eliminate tobacco product imagery from youth-rated films.
October 29, 2019
Nicotine e-cig enthusiasts (and, to some extent, FDA) like to point out that most vapers who develop serious lung disease, now named e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI), are using THC e-cigarettes. That is correct, but two-thirds of the people developing serious lung disease. The CDC’s latest breakdown is
Among 867 patients with information on substances used in e-cigarette, or vaping, products in the 3 months prior to symptom onset** (as of October 15, 2019):
About 86% reported using THC-containing products; 34% reported exclusive use of THC-containing products.
About 64% reported using nicotine-containing products; 11% reported exclusive use of nicotine-containing products.
In other words,
- 11% are exclusively using nicotine e-cigs
- 34% are exclusively using THC e-cigs
- 55% are using both (dual users)
It may well be that there are different mechanisms for the effects of the THC and nicotine e-cigs, which would mean that the dual users are getting a double whammy.
October 26, 2019
Earlier this week, the FDA issued its first “modified risk tobacco product” (MRTP) order, allowing Swedish Match to make the following claim in its advertising: “Using General Snus instead of cigarettes puts you at a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.”
Eric Lindblom, Director, Tobacco Control and Food & Drug Law at Georgetown Law, sent me these comments, which I am passing along with his permission. They continue to show a willingness of the FDA to trust the tobacco companies. I am also disappointed that there was not a more explicit engagement with the public comments that we and other public health authorities submitted.
Here are Eric’s comments:
The final order letter seems to include the exact same advertising restrictions placed on IQOS via the PMTA order – basically requiring age and ID verification and the like to prevent social media and electronic advertising from reaching youth, and requiring disclosures of Swedish Match’s sponsorship of any partners, influencers, bloggers or brand ambassadors who push the product on behalf of the company.
However, it also states:
October 26, 2019
One of the problems that we have been facing is the fact that, for the most part, state laws legalizing cannabis have been enacted through the initiative rather than the legislative process and the people writing and passing these initiatives’ main goal is making cannabis as available as possible with little or no attention to the public health implications of these laws.
It is likely that enacting laws through a legislative process (if the health groups actively participate) could yield more balanced public policies.
October 23, 2019
This news article published on October 23, 2019 in Argentina reporta a man 30 years old who is in the hospital with a lung disease similar to the one seen in the US, Britian, Japan and elsewhere: https://www.pagina12.com.ar/226719-cigarrillo-electronico-confirman-el-primer-caso-grave .
The article is in Spanish. Here is the translation from Google translate:
Electronic cigarette: confirm the first serious case