June 13, 2014
The Ontario Tobacco Research Unit in Canada recently published "Exposure to Onscreen Tobacco in Movies among Ontario Youth, 2004-2013". Here is the executive summary:
Movies are a powerful vehicle for promoting tobacco and health; authorities all over the world have concluded that smoking in movies is a cause for smoking initiation and progression to regular smoking among youth. Higher exposure to onscreen tobacco increases the uptake of smoking among youth and undermines tobacco prevention efforts.
June 12, 2014
Jono Polansky, Kori Titus, Natalie Lanning and I just released our report "Smoking in top-grossing US movies: 2013."
The full report is available at www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n74f4x1
SUMMARY of FINDINGS
• Exposure to on-screen smoking will recruit 6.4 million smokers from among today’s children. Two million of those recruited to smoke by films will die prematurely from tobacco-induced diseases.
• The percentage of youth-rated films with smoking continued a steady decline, with 62 percent of PG-13 films smokefree in 2013 compared to 20 percent in 2002.
• At the same time, tobacco incidents per PG-13 film with smoking are on the rise. In 2012, for the first time, incidents per PG-13 film with smoking were as high as in R-rated films. Incidents climbed 37 percent from 2010 to 2013. The share of PG-13 films with >50 tobacco incidents grew from 17 percent in 2010 to 31 percent in 2012 and 29 percent in 2013
• In 2013, PG-13 films delivered 10.4 billion in-theater tobacco impressions to audiences, 30 percent 30 below 2012 but nearly twice as high as 2010, when smoking in youth-rated films was at its lowest..
June 12, 2014
We just submitted this comment to FDA. The tracking number is 1jy-8cmm-zjhq
The FDA’s Proposed Warnings on Addiction are Inadequate and Do Not Reflect Current Understanding of Appropriate Messaging on Addiction
Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189
June 12, 2014
We just submitted this public comment to FDA. The comment tracking number is 1jy-8cmm-et0a
FDA’s Proposed Warning Statements Are Weak and Ineffective both in Form and Content and Should Be Replaced with Effective Messages
Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189
ML Roditis1, BL Halpern-Felsher2, LK Lempert1, SA Glantz1, L Ppopva1, JK Cataldo1
1Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
University of California San Francisco
2Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University
June 10, 2014
The FDA needs to make evidence-based changes to the current proposed required warning statements both in form and content by doing the following:
1) Remove the word WARNING from the messages.
2) Increase the suggested size of warning messages from 30% to at least 50%.
3) Change the warning message color from black and white to bright yellow background with black text or, in instances where the package is yellow, bright orange with black text and include a black border around the text.
June 11, 2014
Clayton Velicer, Lauren Lempert and I just published "Cigarette company trade secrets are not secret: an analysis of reverse engineering reports in internal tobacco industry documents released as a result of litigation" in Tobacco Control.
Here is the abstract:
Objectives Use previously secret tobacco industry documents to assess tobacco companies’ routine claims of trade secret protection for information on cigarette ingredients, additives and construction made to regulatory agencies, as well as the companies’ refusal to publicly disclose this information.