December 15, 2014
The CDC published a "State Laws Prohibiting Sales to Minors and Indoor Use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems — United States, November 2014," in MMWR that makes the point (consistent with our paper) that prohibiting sales of e-cigs to youth is a necessary, but not sufficient, step in controlling use and mentions industry interference. It comments on how industry-favored youth access laws are passing but not state laws integrating e-cigarettes into clean indoor air laws.
The CDC makes several important statements (quoted verbatim below, but broken into bullets) that public health authorities can cite to support including e-cigarettes in clean indoor air laws:
December 14, 2014
Thomas Wills and colleagues just published "Risk factors for exclusive e-cigarette use and dual e-cigarette use and tobacco use in adolescents" in Pediatrics. This large (1941 high school students, mean age 14.6 years, conducted in 2013) found:
December 13, 2014
Check it out here.
One of Stossel's staff had called me a few days before he made the statement and tried to get me to agree with him and say that the CDC conclusions were wrong. I spend about an hour explaining how people get risk estimates and compute attributable risks ... and that the CDC is bases toward underestimating risks.
December 13, 2014
December 12, 2014
I hear a lot of calls for civility in the debate over e-cigarettes. A friend sent this summary of some recent tweets from Clive Bates, in just the past couple of weeks.
Cowardly public health 'boot boys' and their smearing, sneering, jeering letter (Chapman, Glantz, McKee, Daube)
World’s top cigarette salesmen (Chapman, Glantz, McKee, Daube)
Fakery of the public health establishment
Profound insanity of @UCSF is not merely misleading and harming people, but protecting cig sales (Glantz)
Moralising activists and indignant prudes
Tactics …… to misrepresent the science and mislead the public
False evidence
Ignorant tweets (Capewell)
For an academic, you are disturbingly ignorant about the basics of causation and association. Who funds you…..and why? (Capewell)
Self-indulgent critics of e-cigarettes
One of the most primordial bottom-feeders in all social media (McKee)
Scaremongering
The usual junk-peddlers in tobacco control