December 4, 2014
Heikki Hiilamo and I recently published, "Old wine in new bottles: Tobacco industry’s submissionto European Commission tobacco product directive public consultation" in Health Policy. This evaluation of submissions by the industry and allied groups co companies and allied groups to the EC on the tobacco product directive and found that the industy used standard industry arguments against regulation and, particularly, opposed any meaningful policies that would actually reduce the harm of using tobaco products.
Here is the abstract:
December 3, 2014
Heikki Hiilamo and I just published "Implementation of effective cigarette health warning labels among low and middle income countries: State capacity, path-dependency and tobacco industry activity" in Social Science and Medicine. This paper adds to the empirical case that the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control significantly accelerated implementation of health warning labels, including graphic warning labels, in low and middle income countries.
We also found that:
November 28, 2014
Two Lorillard scientists, S. Sherwin Yan and Carl D'Ruiz, published a paper, "Effects of using electronic cigarettes on nicotine delivery and cardiovascular function in comparison with regular cigarettes," in the industry-friendly journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology in which they compared several models of Lorillard's blu e-cigarettes with Philip Morris' Marlboro.
They found that
November 27, 2014
The use of flavors in e-cigarettes as a way to attract youth is a major issue. (See public comments on this point submitted to the FDA: 1 2 3 4)
Konstantinos Farsalinos and colleagues published a paper, "Impact of Flavour Variability on Electronic Cigarette Use Experience: An Internet Survey," in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health presenting the results of a survey showing that adult e-cigarette users like flavors.
November 27, 2014
Kanae Bekki and colleagues from Japan just published a review of the data on "Carbonyl compounds generated from electronic cigarettes" in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health that made the point that the level of carbonl compounds, which includes formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolen, and glyoxa are found at widely varying levels in e-cigarette aerosol. Determinants of whether and how much of these toxic chemicals are present depends on the makeup of the e-liquid and voltage of the e-cigarette (which determines how hot it gets).
The hotter systems in "second generation" tank-type e-cigarette systems generally operate at higher temperatures (to produce a bigger nicotine hit that is viewed as a good thing by e-cigarette enthusiasts) and produce more toxins. Some of these higher voltage systems produce levels of formaldehye that are similar to conventional cigarette smoke.