March 24, 2015
Hollywood and Tobacco: New Spotlight on Smoking At The Movies
Launch of Revamped UCSF Website Ranks Actors, Directors, Top 10 Movies by Their Use of Tobacco
UC San Francisco is launching a revamped Smokefree Movies website that offers the public unusual insight into Hollywood’s role in the global tobacco epidemic, projected to kill one billion people this century.
Updated every week, the site ranks film producers, directors, writers and actors by their on-screen tobacco footprint based on a database of more than 2,000 films released since 2002.
The site currently lists the five “smokiest” actors, directors, and producers since 2002 as:
Actors Directors Producers
Leonardo DiCaprio Martin Scorsese Grant Heslov
J.K. Simmons George Clooney George Clooney
Vince Vaughn Clint Eastwood Scott Rudin
March 23, 2015
Lucy England and colleagues at the CDC Office on Smoking and Health recently published an important paper, "Nicotine and the Developing Human: A Neglected Element in the Electronic Cigarette Debate," in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. This paper makes the important point that, contrary to glib assertions e-cigarette enthusiasts make that "it is the tar not the nicotine in cigarettes that kills people" they add to case that nicotine, while not the only dangerous thing in cigarettes, is nonetheless dangerous.
Here is the abstract of their paper:
March 23, 2015
It is no secret that in recent years I have been critical of the California Department of Public Health's media campaign for loosing its edge.
That just changed with CDPH's launch a of great campaign to educate the public about e-cigarettes. It is the best thing out there so far.
You can view the two TV ads here and here and a collection of the print ads here.
The program has a great highly interactive website at www.stillblowingsmoke.org
This is the press release announcing the campaign:
California Debuts Ads to Counter E-cigarettes
SACRAMENTO – Twenty-five years after launching the first anti-smoking advertisements in the state, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on Monday, March 23, 2014, will premiere a series of television, digital, and outdoor ads in a new campaign called “Wake Up,” as part of its educational effort to inform the public about the dangers of e-cigarettes.
March 19, 2015
This is a big step in the right direction, but the Administration needs to move beyond just consulting with economists on this issue of neuroscience.
From Reuters:
Exclusive: U.S. to roll back 'lost pleasure' approach on health rules
12:42pm EDT
By Sharon Begley and Toni Clarke
March 18, 2015
Tonight at the World Conference on Tobacco Or Health, Michael Bloomberg announced that he and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation were establishing a legal network to help countries fight off frivilous lawsuits against sensible tobacco control measures (like plain packaging).
This strategic decision will level the playing field for many smaller countries and make it harder for Big Tobacco to bully them.
I applaud this decision.
(For more information on this legal bullying, check out John Oliver's explanation here.)