December 13, 2014
December 12, 2014
I hear a lot of calls for civility in the debate over e-cigarettes. A friend sent this summary of some recent tweets from Clive Bates, in just the past couple of weeks.
Cowardly public health 'boot boys' and their smearing, sneering, jeering letter (Chapman, Glantz, McKee, Daube)
World’s top cigarette salesmen (Chapman, Glantz, McKee, Daube)
Fakery of the public health establishment
Profound insanity of @UCSF is not merely misleading and harming people, but protecting cig sales (Glantz)
Moralising activists and indignant prudes
Tactics …… to misrepresent the science and mislead the public
False evidence
Ignorant tweets (Capewell)
For an academic, you are disturbingly ignorant about the basics of causation and association. Who funds you…..and why? (Capewell)
Self-indulgent critics of e-cigarettes
One of the most primordial bottom-feeders in all social media (McKee)
Scaremongering
The usual junk-peddlers in tobacco control
December 11, 2014
In our paper, "When health policy and empirical evidence collide: the case of cigarette package warning labels and economic consumer surplus," published in American Journal of Public Health in February 2014, we raised a concern that the FDA would expand its practice of discounting health benefits of other public health regulations that would encourage healthy eating.
On December 8, 2014 Reuters reporter Sharon Begley reported that the FDA did just that in their new rule requiring calorie information to be added to many menus in chain restaurants and other food vendors.
The FDA estimated that the cost of the lost pleasure could be as much $5.27 billion, essentially wiping out any economic benefits if the medical savings of reduced diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems is at the lower end of the benefits that the FDA estimated ($5.3 billion to $15.8 billion of 20 years).
December 10, 2014
There are four surveys that have been recently published that show increaing e-cigarette use among youth from Wales, Scotland, Hawaii, and Connecticut. These data support earlier findings in young adults that e-cigarette use is associated with higher susceptability to cigarette smoking.
Data collected in 2014 for the Welsh government among 10 and 11 year olds reported "Exposure to secondhand smoke in cars and homes, and e-cigarette use among 10-11 year old children in Wales: CHETS Wales 2" found:
December 4, 2014
The harm reduction enthusiasts often point to the fact that people with mental illness have hihger smoking rates than thee general public and suggest that this group would particularly benefit from using e-cigarettes.
Jodi Prochaska and Rachel Grana examined the relationship between e-cigarette use and quitting cigarettes in people with serious mental illness enrolled in a clinical trial of different smoking cessation therapies (usual care, brief treatment, and extended treatment). While the trial was not examining e-cigarettes as one of the interventions -- the trial started before the e-cigarette market started growing rapidly -- the investigators recorded e-cigarette use among participants.
They found that e-cigarette use grew over time, but was not associated with increased quitting or even greater cigarette consumption than people not using e-cigarettes.
Here is the abstract:
Background
We examined electronic cigarette (EC) use, correlates of use, and associated changes in smoking behavior among smokers with serious mental illness in a clinical trial.
Methods