March 13, 2019
With the vote on Sacramento City tobacco flavor ban approaching, the Sacramento Bee recently published opposing op-eds on the subject, one supporting the ban by Drs. David Cook and Phil Gardner, “To save African American lives, flavored tobacco ban must include menthol cigarettes,” and one opposing the law by vape store owner Noordidin “Noor” Kachhi, “Ban on flavored vaping products will kill small businesses like mine.”
Cook and Gardner frankly lay out the racial dimension of the importance that flavor bans include menthol, not just because many kids start with menthol cigarettes, cigars, and e-cigs, but because menthol has been a key element of tobacco industry targeting of the African American community. They pointedly note that “In California, 70 percent of African American adults who smoke consume menthols compared to just 18 percent of white adults who smoke.”
March 13, 2019
Jeremy E. Drehmer and colleagues just published “Parental Smoking and E-cigarette Use in Homes and Cars“ in Pediatrics showing that adults with children who are dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes are less likely to have and enforce smokefree policies in their homes and cars than parents who just smoke. This matters because it is yet another way that the advent of e-cigs is harming the health of children (and their parents and other bystanders).
As the authors point out, most people think e-cigs are safer than cigs (even “safe”). This perception seems to be spilling over to affect policies even when the same people are smoking cigs. The authors repot, “a perception may exist among many parents that e-cigarette aerosol is safe for their children because the majority of dual users had a strictly enforced smoke-free home policy (63.8%), whereas a statistically significant lower percentage of these parents had a strictly enforced vape-free home policy (26.3%)... Additionally, parents who dual use cigarettes and e-cigarettes were less likely to have strictly enforced smoke-free policies for the car and vape-free policies in the home and car than parents who only use traditional cigarettes."
March 11, 2019
Today (March 11, 2019) FDA Commissioner Gottlieb released a statement on the FDA’s new budget request. He continues to express enthusiasm for e-cigs as an alternative to combusted cigarettes, but there are finally some notes of caution appearing in his assessment of their health effects for adults.
Here is the relevant part of the statement (my emphasis):
“The FDA is fully committed to a pathway for the efficient and effective regulation of ENDS products. These products have the potential to offer currently addicted adult smokers a way to fully transition off cigarettes, but still enable them to get access to satisfying levels of nicotine, but potentially without the same risks as combusting tobacco. But the e-cigarettes must be put through an appropriate series of regulatory gates to properly assess their risks and to understand their potential to help smokers who completely switch from combustible tobacco.
March 9, 2019
Several people and reporters have contacted me asking how Juul can get away with advertising its products on television and radio, where cigarette advertisements have been prohibited since 1971. The short answer is that the law prohibiting broadcast advertising of cigarettes applies to cigarettes, not tobacco products in general and Juul is not a cigarette.
Having said that, there may be other avenues for stopping the Juul ads, as well as its major PR print advertising campaign to claim that the company only wants to provide a better alternative to adult smokers while it continues to make bushels of money selling Juul to youth and young adults: All these ads are making illegal therapeutic (they can help users quit smoking) and modified risk claims (they are healthier) without the legally-required approvals from FDA.
March 9, 2019
On March 18, 2019, Mohinder R. Vindhyal and colleages will be presenting Impact on Cardiovascular Outcomes Among E-Cigarette Users: A Review From National Health Interview Surveys at the American College of Cardiology meeting. This study adds to the growing literature (other papers: 1, 2, 3) that people who use e-cigarettes are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes. They also, for the first time, found an association with circulatory problems.