November 22, 2018
My colleagues at UCSF, Georgia State University, and Stanford submitted this comment to the FDA on PMI's MRTP application for IQOS. The tracking number is 1k2-96n7-7zl0 and a PDF of the comment is available here.
Documents related to the comment:
PMI response to November 22, 2017 information request
PMI powerpoint on THS-PMTA05-NOC study from TPSAC mtg
November 17, 2018
As part of its ongoing research into to the epidemic use of JUUL by American youth, the Stanford Research into Tobacco Advertising (SRITA) project is comprehensively documenting the company’s promotional activities. This is a great resource to support research, advocacy, and policymaking that is freely available to everyone.
Recently uploaded:
over 1400 JUUL advertisements, social media postings, and images from sampling events: tobacco.stanford.edu/pods/juul
30 JUUL promotional videos: http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/videolist_juul.php
70 Comparisons between JUUL and traditional tobacco advertising: http://tobacco.stanford.edu/juultobaccocomparison
They are in the midst of adding a comprehensive “pod device” section with advertising of JUUL-a-Likes. So far Logic’s compact, Phix, and Myle have been uploaded to http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/main_pods.php
November 5, 2018
In response to exploding youth use of e-cigarettes, led by Juul, the FDA has been talking tough but doing little. The statement issued on October 31, 2018, by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on his meetings with industry suggests that he is falling into their old “youth smoking prevention” trap, by “welcoming voluntary steps by companies” and viewing their proposals to address youth e-cigarette use as “thoughtful.” The path he is following promises to make FDA complicit in promoting the e-cigarette epidemic.
Before he and the FDA proceed down this path, they should carefully read what the 2012 Surgeon General Report Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults has to say about what the industry is really up to.
He and the FDA should start with this overall conclusion from Chapter 5: “The tobacco companies’ activities and programs for the prevention of youth smoking have not demonstrated an impact on the initiation or prevalence of smoking among young people.”
November 5, 2018
Alameda, CA is considering an ordinance to license tobacco retailers and prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products. Retailers are arguing that chewing tobacco should be exempted becuase theh claim the average age of those that chew is 40. I asked my colleague Ben Chaffee about this and here is what he had to say:
While smokeless (dip and chew) has been traditionally been a product for older adults, the last several decades have seen a major shift toward use by younger consumers (and marketing to them).
Smokeless tobacco consumption in the United States overall has been on the rise. {Bhattacharyya N. Trends in the use of smokeless tobacco in United States, 2000-2010. Laryngoscope 2012;122(10):2175-8; Chang JT, Levy DT, Meza R. Trends and Factors Related to Smokeless Tobacco Use in the United States. Nicotine Tob Res 2016;18(8):1740-8; Lipari RN. Trends in Smokeless Tobacco Use and Initiation: 2002 to 2012. The CBHSQ Report. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2013.}
October 30, 2018
As more states legalize cannabis, specialty publications have been appearing that are designed to appeal to cannabis users. Ryan Halvorson, Christopher Stewart, and Aishwarya Thakur and I assessed the accuracy of reporting on health effects of cannabis in one such publication, Green State, which is published by the San Francisco Chronicle. We found that Green State was reasonably accurate in reporting on positive news but downplayed negative health effects. In contrast, reporting on the same issues in the main San Francisco Chronicle much more accurately reflected the state of scientific knowledge.
This analysis, including a detailed assessment of the individual news stories in both publications, appears in our paper “Scientific Quality of Health-Related Articles in Specialty Cannabis and General Newspapers in San Francisco” that was recently published in Journal of Health Communications.
Here is the abstract: