August 21, 2018
We just published "Association Between Electronic Cigarette Use and Myocardial Infarction" in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Here is the UCSF press release describing the study:
Risk of Heart Attacks Is Double for Daily E-Cigarette Users
New Analysis Shows Five-Fold Risk for People Who Use Both Cigarettes and E-Cigarettes Daily
Use of e-cigarettes every day can nearly double the odds of a heart attack, according to a new analysis of a survey of nearly 70,000 people, led by researchers at UC San Francisco.
The research also found that dual use of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes — the most common use pattern among e-cigarette users — appears to be more dangerous than using either product alone. The study found that the risks compound, so that daily use of both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes raises the heart attack risk five-fold when compared to people who don’t use either product.
This is the first study to examine the relationship between e-cigarette use and heart attacks, and begins to fill the understanding of the effects of e-cigarettes on long-term health. The study was published Aug. 22, 2018, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The data were first presented in February in Baltimore at the 2018 annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.
August 21, 2018
August 18, 2018
This 45 minute lecture, prepared for the 14 FDA/NIH-sponsored TCORS, reviews why people think e-cigarettes are a sensible part of a tobacco harm-reduction strategy as originally envisioned my Michael Russell in his 1976 widely-repeated "people smoke for the nicotine but die from the tar" statement and whether the current evidence supports that hope. Watch it here.
August 11, 2018
Lauren Lempert and I just sent this letter to FDA suggesting the questions that FDA and its Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee should consider when assessing RJR's Modified Risk Tobacco Product application for Camel Snus. A PDF of the letter is available here.
August 11, 2018
Mr. Mitchell Zeller, Director
Dr. Matthew R. Holman, Director, Office of Science
August 10, 2018
Pam Ling and I just published “Tobacco company strategies to identify and promote the benefits of nicotine” in Tobacco Control. In this paper, we used previously secret tobacco industry documents to show how the tobacco companies have worked for decades to promote the myth than nicotine does not have any adverse effects and, in fact, has benefits. We are hearing echoes of these efforts in the current discussions about nicotine, with much of this thinking implicit in the FDA’s nicotine policy.
Hopefully, as people and policymakers develop more sophisticated understanding of the industry’s role in promoting these ideas, they will move beyond this obsolete thinking.
Here is the abstract:
Background In response to a changing regulatory and consumer landscape, tobacco companies developed new strategies to promote cigarettes and smoking. We examined one of these strategies: to fund and conduct scientific research related to potential benefits of nicotine, and to use their findings to promote nicotine.