Tobacco Center Faculty Blog

November 24, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

We submitted this public comment to FDA in response to Swedish Match's request to change the warning labels on snus.  The tracking number is 1jy-8fp2-j9pp.
 
“Swedish Experience” extolled in this MRTP application is not transferrable to the US because of the dual use with cigarettes and differences in the tobacco advertising environment
 
Docket ID: FDA-2014-N-1051
Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, Lucy Popova, PhD, & Lauren K. Lempert, JD MPH
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
University of California San Francisco
November 25, 2014
 
 

November 19, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

This ad ran in Variety today and will run in Hollywood Reporter after Thanksgiving.  Learn more here.

November 18, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

This is the testimony I plan to give at the University of California Regents meeting today on the proposed 25% tuition increases:
 
My name is Stanton Glantz.  I am a UCSF professor, past chair of the Systemwide Committee on Planning and Budget, and vice president of the Council of UC Faculty Association.
 
You are debating these proposed tuition increases for one simple reason:
 
When Governor Brown took office he slashed higher ed.
 
Even now, a few years into Governor Brown's 'modest funding increases,' he still spends less on UC and CSU than Arnold Schwarzenegger did his final year as Governor.
 
You should not be arguing how much to raise tuition, but how to mobilize the public support to restore the California Master plan of low cost high quality higher education for all.
 
Returning to 2001-2002, before the massive tuition increases, returning per-student funding to where it was then, and making room for the thousands of students that have been forced out of the system would cost the median California family just $50 a year. 
 
We call on you to fight to restore the California dream.

November 17, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

Ganna Kostygina, Pam Ling, and I recently published "Tobacco industry use of flavours to recruit new users of little cigars and cigarillos" in Tobacco Control showing how the tobacco companies use flavors to attrach new smokers and keep current ones smoking.  This work is particularly relevant as the FDA and other agencies consider what to do about flavors.
 
Here is the abstract:
 
Objective While flavoured cigarettes were prohibited in the USA in 2009, flavoured little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) remain on the market. We describe the evolving
strategies used by tobacco companies to encourage uptake of flavoured LCCs and industry research findings on consumer perceptions of flavoured LCC products.
Methods Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents was triangulated with data from tobacco advertisement archives, national newspapers, trade press and the internet.
Results Flavoured LCC products were associated with young and inexperienced tobacco users, women and African-Americans. Internal industry studies confirmed
that menthol and candy-like flavours (eg, vanilla and cherry) increased LCC appeal to starters by masking the heavy cigar taste, reducing throat irritation and making

November 16, 2014

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

Robert McMillen and colleagues just presented "Susceptibility To Electronic Cigarette Use Among Current Nonsmokers" at the American Public Health Association meeting, which adds to the growing case that e-cigarettes are not just being used as a replacement for cigarettes among current users, but are attracting new people to nicotine addiction and, perhaps, leading long-term former smokers to relapse to nicotine use.
 
"Susceptability" is a measure of the liklihood of future use that is a validated predictor of future cigarette smoking behavior.
 
This national study of adults (18+ years old) found that  6.7% of never smokers and 13.9% are susceptable to starting to use e-cigarettes, with higher susceptablity among people who have seen e-cigarette advertising.  
 
Here are their conclusions: 
 
• Over 20% of young adult never and former smokers who have never tried e-cigarettes are susceptible to using them in the future.
• The substantial number of vulnerable young adult nonsmokers illustrates the imperative for sales and marketing regulation to protect nonsmokers from being recruited to e-cigarette use and possible nicotine addiction.
• Until the risks of e-cigarettes are better defined, it is irresponsible to allow an unrestrained industry to encourage uptake of a potentially hazardous product.
 

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