April 21, 2016
On April 15, 2016 the CDC published "Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students -- United States, 2011-2015" in MMWR.
The data (see graph for high school students) show continued growth in e-cigarette use with no drop in cigarette smoking. The data for middle school students show continued growth in e-cigarettes with a small decline in cigarettes.
What this means is that e-cigarettes are continuing to expand the nicotine market among kids. The fact that conventional cigarettes did not drop in high school students and only declined slightly among middle school students is precisely what one would expect if some of the kids initiating nicotine use with e-cigarettes were adding cigarettes, which is what the longitudinal data show (nonsmoking kids who start with e-cigarettes about three times more likely to be smoking cigarettes a year later).
April 20, 2016
My colleagues at UCSF and I have submitted the following public comment to the FDA. The regulations.gov tracking number is 1k0-8p6f-vtz.
FDA should regulate the manufacturing and marketing of hookah tobacco to prevent misperceptions of harm and widespread use among youth and young adults
Docket FDA-2016-N-0173
UCSF Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
University of California, San Francisco*
INTRODUCTION
April 18, 2016
In results released 1 April 2016, Canadian tobacco control groups found 79 percent of Ontario adults wanted to end smoking in movies rated 14A or lower (similar to US PG-13 and lower in the US). Seventy-seven percent opposed the display of tobacco brand logos in films. Two out of three adults backed an 18A rating for future films with tobacco.
Support for smokefree movie initiatives has grown since 2011, when the Paris-based public opinion pollster Ipsos last surveyed Ontario adults on the same questions (see chart).
Half of those polled agree that tobacco companies have paid for tobacco product placement in movies, compared to 11 percent who disagree. Twice as many agree than disagree that kids who see lots of smoking in movies are more likely to start smoking. Twice as many also agree that the tobacco industry has paid actors to smoke on screen.
April 18, 2016
I just arrived back from vacation to hear that, based on the advice on the investment consulting firm Wilshire Associates, the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) was considering reversing its longstanding policy of not investing in tobacco stocks.
There are lots of reasons to stay out of tobacco stocks, most notably that CalPERS would be supporting an industry that drives up medical costs for California (paid by CalPERS for state retirees). Another reason is that the tobacco companies are established racketeers, still under the supervision of Federal Judge Gladys Kessler.
In addition to these obvious issues (which CalPERS seems to be avoiding), they need to address possible undisclosed conflicts of interest for their investment advisors, Wilshire Associates, who have also worked for Philip Morris in the past, including helping them muster arguments against divestment in the late 1990s (document 1, document 2).
March 24, 2016
Nicholaw Kusnetz at the Center for Public Integrity just published an excellent in-depth story, How Big Tobacco lobbies to safeguard e-cigarettes, about the massive lobbying effort that the big cigarette companies are mounting to protect e-cigarettes. While national in scope, there is strong coverage in California, including how the industry uses large strategic campaign contributions to the Assembly Government Organization Committee to block tobacco control bills and also the raw threats being made to the governor and other unless he vetoes a lackage of bills, including one including e-cigarettes in the state's clean indoor air law. (One wonders if they are overplaying their hand by so openly threatening politicians who like to pretend that they don't pay attention to campaign contributions.) These bills passed in a special session where there was no Government Organization Committee.