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.)
March 17, 2015
Eric Lindblom, who headed the Office of Policy in the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and is now on detail at the Georgetown University School of Law, just published "Effectively Regulating E-Cigarettes and Their Advertising— and the First Amendment" in Food and Drug Law Journal. This paper is the an amazingly creative and incisive analysis of how to get out-of-control e-cigarette marketing under control as soon as the FDA achieves authority to regulate e-cigarettes.
Lindbloom notes that there are two possible justifications for allowing e-cigarettes on the market:
- The might help current smokers quit cigarettes.
- The might be an effective harm reduction strategy for current smokers.
He notes that there are several ways in which e-cigarettes could result in increased harm:
March 15, 2015
According to this post on a well-respected blog on global warming, http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/03/13/tobacco-gun-hire-james-enstrom-willie-soon-climate-change, James Enstrom, an epidemiologist with a long history of working for tobacco and other corporate interests, is urging people to file ethics complaints against me and other scientists who appear in the new movie "Merchants of Doubt" through our universities.