April 5, 2020
UCSF has added smoking and vaping nicotine and cannabis to its screening and triage protocol for COVID-19 to help assess risks.
The question in the protocol is:
18. Do you currently smoke or vape?
a. (Yes) Which of the following do you regularly do? (select all that apply)
i. Smoke cigarettes
ii. Vape nicotine (e-cigarettes)
iii. Smoke marijuana
iv. Vape marijuana
People who use any of these products are put into a higher risk category. The full triage protocol is here.
Not only will this addition lead to better screening of potential patients, but it will provide important information for assessing specific risks when coupled with outcome data later on.
As noted on the triage protocol, it is available for non-commercial use.
March 31, 2020
In the middle of the COVID-19 oubreak with research -- much of it funded by the FDA through NIH -- consistently indicating that e-cigarettes depress lung's ability to fight off infection, the FDA has now petitioned the court to push the May 12, 2020 deadline for e-cigarette companies to submit their applications for approval of e-cigarettes back 4 months to September 9, 2020.
This is an outrageous misplacement of priorities. I am pleased that the health groups who secured the court order forcing the FDA to start processing e-cigarette applications are in court opposing this dangerous change.
PS: Even with no change in the court ruling, companies that get applications in by May 20, 2020 will still be able to keep selling their products for a year while FDA considers the applications.
My blog post on quitting smoking and vaping as a way to reduce COVID risk is here. I update it regularly.
March 21, 2020
This excellent investigative story by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism fleshes out the links between Public Health England and Big Tobacco.
It is long past time for people to stop paying attention to PHE and its crazy promotion of e-cigs.
The story starts:
Doctors have criticised the organisation responsible for protecting the nation’s health over its work with a vaping pressure group that is itself linked to the world’s largest multinational tobacco company.
Public Health England paid £40,000 for a series of YouTube videos co-produced by the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) and held numerous meetings with the group, despite its ties to Philip Morris International, an investigation by the Bureau has revealed.
Read the whole thing here.
March 4, 2020
My blog posts on the federal T21 law generated a lot of questions to me about enforcement and how the federal law relates to state laws.
The FDA just posted a website that clearly addresses these issues. The bottom line in the T21 is the law everywhere in the country now with no exceptions. For people who want details, it is worth spending a few minutes looking at the FDA's commonly asked questions.
February 23, 2020
The FDA is about to close the docket on the question of whether to allow Philip Morris to make reduced risk or reduced exposure claims for IQOS. This comment updates our earlier comments with more recent information that further strengthens the case for denying both claims.
A PDF of the comment is here. The Regulations.gov tracking number is 1k4-9f6q-znav.
FDA should not authorize Philip Morris International to market IQOS with claims of reduced risk or reduced exposure