October 27, 2018
The recent memo leaked from the White House represents an unconscionable and insidious effort to legally erase trans people and trans identities. This plan seeks to discriminate against individuals by using “biological sex” as a strict definer of gender identity – a link that is scientifically unfounded.
We reject this anti-trans rhetoric and we stand in solidarity with our trans colleagues at UCSF and around the world. Anti-trans legislation and any related discriminatory policies run counter to UCSF’s core mission as an institute rooted in PRIDE values (professionalism, respect, integrity, diversity, excellence). We pledge to continue to use our resources and collective voice to take a strong stand against this effort to erase trans identities.
We have a long history of working with LGBT colleagues, be they faculty, students, fellows, staff or beyond UCSF. UCSF researchers also have conducted important research on how the tobacco companies target LGBT people, which helps explain their high smoking rates.
We are committed to working together with UCSF to provide full and public support for trans people and trans identities.
October 22, 2018
Tobacco Control just published a special supplement on heated tobacco products, in particular PMI’s IQOS. These papers use PMI’s own data as well as independent data to show that they are not as safe as PMI (and the other companies) claim. You can download the whole issue here; a table of contents and links to each of the individual papers is at the bottom of this blog post.
Here is the UCSF press release on the issue, with emphasis on the UCSF authors:
Heated Tobacco Product Claims by Tobacco Industry Scrutinized by UC San Francisco Researchers and Others in Independent Data Review
Fourteen of 22 Papers Published in a Special Issue of Tobacco Control on Health, Marketing and Regulatory Aspects of New Tobacco Product Feature UCSF Authors
Claims by the tobacco industry that heated tobacco products (HTPs) are safer than conventional cigarettes are not supported by the industry’s own data and are likely to be misunderstood by consumers, according to research published in a special issue of Tobacco Control.
October 21, 2018
JUUL, the e-cigarette that looks like a flash drive, is really efficient at delivering the addictive drug nicotine, and now dominates the kid market, is mirroring what the cigarette companies have done for decades in now claiming that they don’t want kids to smoke and promoting their own “youth smoking prevention” program.
As Jessica Liu and Bonnie Halpern-Felsher just pointed out in an insightful commentary published in Journal of Adolescent Health, “The JUUL curriculum is not the jewel of tobacco prevention education,” that the JUUL curricula looks just like similar curricula that the cigarette companies promoted since the 1980s whenever they felt pressure on the kids’ issue. As Liu and Halpern-Felsher note, the JUUL curriculum
- Blames kids and parents for kids’ JUUL use
- Does not stress that JUUL delivers nicotine, an addictive drug
- Ignores the role of JUUL’s advertising and social media promotions in the exploding youth use
- Does not forthrightly address the importance of the flavors that JUUL uses to attract and hold kids
If JUUL was serious they would drop flavors and stop their social marketing efforts.
October 11, 2018
Jesse Elias and his colleagues just published “Revolution or redux? Assessing IQOS through a precursor product” in Tobacco Control. They used previously secret tobacco industry documents to examine Accord, an earlier version of IQOS that Philip Morris marketed without success between 1998 at 2006. In contrast to IQOS, PM scientists and executives consistently stated that Accord reduced users’ exposure to harmful constituents but that these reductions did not render Accord safer than conventional cigarettes. (PMI’s data shows that the same thing that is true for IQOS.) Moreover, Elias and colleagues found that when comparing the aerosol chemistry test results between Accord and IQOS there was not a consistent reduction in exposure to toxicants, calling into question PMI’s current safety claims for IQOS, which are made on the basis of reduced exposure.
Here is the abstract:
October 9, 2018
Tony Yang and I just published “San Francisco Voters End the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products Despite Strong Industry Opposition” in Annals of Internal Medicine. This paper puts the successful defense of the San Francisco Flavor Ban Ordinance in a broader policy and public health context. It concludes:
Despite challenges from tobacco companies, states and localities have clear authority to restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products to reduce tobacco use and its harms to citizens. At least 2 states and more than 100 localities have passed restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco products, although laws differ in their applicability to specific products and store types. However, Proposition E represents a major step forward because it is the nation's first comprehensive ban on the sale of flavored tobacco, and it has already inspired others to follow.