October 9, 2012
Today's Huffington Post has a detailed article using previously secret tobacco industry documents housed at the UCSF Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
to show how, under Mitt Romney, Bain played a key role in helping British American Tobacco and Philip Morris invade Russia. This effort succeeded, leading to large increases in smoking (and smoking-induced disease).
Read the story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/mitt-romney-bain-tobacco_n_1949812.html .
The story includes copies of several key documents and live links to many more.
October 4, 2012
Stanton Glantz, Professor of Medicine and Director of the UC San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education is seeking an individual interested in conducting a broad range of research projects related to tobacco control. These include: (1) State and local policymaking process as it relates to tobacco control. The project involves preparing detailed case studies on tobacco policy making in different states, including research on the development and passage (or defeat) of state and local tobacco control legislation, funding and management of tobacco control programs, efforts of public health advocates to promote public health programs, and opposition to tobacco control by the tobacco industry and its allies and surrogates; (2) Influence of the tobacco industry on the scientific process, particularly as it relates to efforts to regulate secondhand smoke and cigarette design; (3) Statistical and economic analysis of tobacco control programs and related issues. Data collection will involve researching written records, analyzing campaign contribution information, conducting interviews and doing field research.
October 1, 2012
Stanton Glantz, Professor of Medicine and Director of the UC San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education is seeking a postdoctoral fellow interested in conducting research on how the tobacco industry was has worked to influence of the tobacco industry on the scientific process, particularly as it relates to efforts to regulate secondhand smoke and cigarette design. Data collection will involve researching written records (including tobacco industry documents) and reviewing associated scientific literature, which often involves toxicology, physiology or biostatistics.
Strong analytical and writing skills are important. This position is for one to three years and suitable for an individual with a life sciences or statistical background who is looking to gain research experience as a postdoctoral fellow in work with high public policy relevance. Stipend is on the NIH scale, currently ranging from approximately $39,264 to $49,884, depending on years of postdoctoral experience.
Send a letter describing your interests and experience and writing samples of your work to Stanton Glantz, Box 1390, University of California, 530 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 91413-1390, or email to [email protected].
September 27, 2012
Uptick in Cinematic Smoking
More Onscreen Tobacco Use in Movies Aimed at Young Viewers
Top box office films last year showed more onscreen smoking than the prior year, reversing five years of steady progress in reducing tobacco imagery in movies, according to a new UCSF study.
Moreover, many of the top-grossing films of 2011 with significant amounts of smoking targeted a young audience, among them the PG-rated cartoon Rango and X-Men: First Class.” The more smoking young people see in movies, the more likely they are to start smoking, the U.S. Surgeon General has reported.
The study will be available September 27, 2012 in Preventing Chronic Disease Journal, an online, peer-reviewed publication of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
“Hollywood has still not fixed this problem,” said lead author Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, a professor of medicine at UCSF and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. “The result of the increase in onscreen smoking in youth-rated films will be more kids starting to smoke and developing tobacco-induced disease.”
September 19, 2012
A study published in Indoor Air from the Fraunhofer Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut in Germany examined secondhand emissions from several e-cigarettes in a human exposure chamber. Each e-cigarette was puffed 6 times and data were collected for a conventional cigarette, also puffed 6 times.
While the e-cigarette produced lower levels of toxins in the air for nonsmokers to breathe than the conventional cigarette, there were still elevated levels of acetic acid, acetone, isoprene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, averaging around 20% of what the conventional cigarette put into the air.
Thus, while not as polluting as a conventional cigarette, the e-cigarettes are putting detectable levels of several significant carcinogens and toxins in the air.
No one should have to breathe these chemicals, whether they come out of a conventional or e-cigarette. No one should smoke e-cigarettes indoors that are free of other forms of tobacco smoke pollution.