November 7, 2017
Tingting Yao and our colleagues just published “Relationship between spending on electronic
cigarettes, 30-day use, and disease symptoms among current adult cigarette smokers in the U.S.” in PLOS ONE. This paper shows that smokers who use e-cigarettes report having more chest pain, are more likely to notice blood when brushing their teeth, to have sores or ulcers in their mouth, and to have more than one cold than smokers who did not use e-cigarettes in the last 30 days. Even after controlling for cigarettes smoked per day, e-cigarette expenditures or use was associated with greater odds of wheezing and shortness of breath.
This paper adds to the evidence that dual use of e-cigarettes with cigarettes is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes.
Another interesting finding is that the amount of money spent on e-cigarettes is a better predictor of health effects than reported e-cigarette use. This variable may capture differences in e-cigarette systems as well as how heavily they are used.
Here is the abstract:
October 31, 2017
Battle of the Sexes (Fox, PG-13) spotlights a struggle for gender equality on the pro tennis circuit and a much-hyped 1973 tennis match between women's champion Billie Jean King and hustler Bobbie Riggs.
The film also touches on tobacco giant Philip Morris' sponsorship of King and other players who broke away to form their own women's professional tour. Four decades after Philip Morris bankrolled the Virginia Slims Tour, Battle of the Sexes displays or mentions the Virginia Slims brand thirteen times, among its eighty tobacco incidents. Virginia Slims are still sold in the US and around the world.
Two of the film's three smokers are based on actual women who smoked: tour promoter Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman) and tennis player Jane "Peaches" Bartkowicz (Martha MacIsaac). The third is an un-named extra.
In its first six weeks, Battle of the Sexes delivered more than 100 million tobacco impressions to movie audiences, many unaware of the film's tobacco backstory:
Philip Morris pushes tobacco at women
October 30, 2017
David Hammond and colleagues just published “Electronic cigarette use and smoking initiation among youth: a longitudinal cohort study,” a large well-done longitudinal study of Canadian high school students that found that, like all the other similar studies from the US and UK, kids who started with e-cigarettes we more likely to be smoking conventional cigarettes a year later and also more likely to have become daily smokers.
In addition to controlling for a wide range of demographic and behavioral factors, they controlled susceptibility to cigarette smoking which contributes to the strength of the study.
The paper is especially interesting because nicotine-containing e-cigarettes are illegal in Canada, which strongly suggests that the gateway effect of e-cigarette use does not simply depend on the availability of nicotine. Nicotine containing e-cigs are illegally available at vape shops, but only nicotine-free e-cigs are available in supermarkets and convenience stores. There are no legal restrictions on youth purchase of these e-cigarettes in Canada.
October 24, 2017
Boris Reidel and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina just published E-Cigarette Use Causes a Unique Innate Immune Response in the Lung Involving Increased Neutrophilic Activation and Altered Mucin Secretion which adds to the growing case that e-cigarettes have a different risk profile that conventional cigarettes and, at least for some effects, may be more dangerous than conventional cigarettes.
After noting that “e-cigarettes, have become popular … supported by a common assumption that e-cigarette use is harmless and a safe alternative to cigarette smoking. Despite a lack of sufficient health science evidence, e-cigarettes are promoted as cigarette smoking cessation aids in some health care practices.”
October 12, 2017
Press release / Published: 10 October 2017
Wellcome statement on the cancelled corporate event booking for the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
On 5 October 2017 Wellcome Trust took immediate steps to terminate a commercial hire contract for an event scheduled to take place in a Wellcome venue in late October.
At the time of booking, it was not made clear to Wellcome Trust Trading Ltd, or its parent Wellcome Trust Ltd, that the event was for a meeting of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, which is an organisation funded by a tobacco company.
We would not have accepted the booking had we known who it was for. A breach of contract occurred when Wellcome was named on the invitation without Wellcome’s permission. The hire contract was cancelled and the event organisers were informed.
Wellcome’s policy does not allow organisations to host events whose purposes conflict with our mission to improve health. We do not fund the activities of tobacco companies, or invest in tobacco companies.
We have no association with the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
The release is at https://wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/wellcome-statement-corporate-event-hire-cancellation