October 23, 2014
California’s Tobacco Control Efforts Losing Steam
Reduced Spending Power of Anti-Tobacco Program, Resurgence of Tobacco Industry in State Politics, and Unregulated E-Cigarettes to Blame
California’s position as a leader in tobacco control is under threat, according to a new report from the UC San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. Once a highly successful program and international model, the state’s anti-tobacco efforts now appear to be waning due to the decreased spending power of the California Tobacco Control Program, a resurgence of the tobacco industry in state politics, and the emergence of new unregulated tobacco products.
“The combination of weak leadership at the state level, willingness of political leaders to accept tobacco industry money, and inflation eroding the spending power of the California Tobacco Control Program are compromising its effectiveness, which will lead, even in the short term, to more smoking,” said Stanton Glantz, PhD, UCSF professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
The report will be published on Thursday, Oct. 23 in eScholarship, which provides open-access scholarly publishing services to the University of California.
October 22, 2014
Jennie Harris and colleagues at Washington University St. Louis recently published a paper, "Tweeting for and Against Public Health Policy: Response to the Chicago Department of Public Health's Electronic Cigarette Twitter Campaign," that did a quantitative analysis of the "Twitter Bomb" campaign directed against the the Chicago City Council when it was considering adding e-cigarettes to the city's clean indoor air law.
They found an organized campaign -- based outside Chicago (and outside Illinois) -- to generate oppostion to the proposed ordinance. Here is the summary of theor results from the abstract:
October 21, 2014
Tingting Yao and colleagues here at UCSF just published "A content analysis of electronic cigarette manufacturer websites in China" in Tobacco Control. Here is the abstract:
Objective The goal of this study was to summarise the websites of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) manufacturers in China and describe how they market their products.
Methods From March to April 2013, we used two search keywords ‘electronic cigarette’ (Dian Zi Xiang Yan in Chinese) and ‘manufacturer’ (Sheng Chan Chang Jia in Chinese) to search e-cigarette manufacturers in China on Alibaba, an internet-based e-commerce business that covers business-to-business online marketplaces, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and datacentric cloud computing services. A total of 18 websites of 12 e-cigarette manufacturers in China were analysed by using a coding guide which includes 14 marketing claims.
October 21, 2014
Roswell Park-Led Study Documents Significant Rise in E-Cigarette Use Among Youth in Poland
Cigarettes not replacing conventional tobacco cigarettes among this group, findings indicate
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has more than tripled among students in Poland, according to research led by Maciej Goniewicz, PhD, PharmD, a researcher in the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI). The study, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Adolescent Health, was conducted in collaboration with researchers at the Medical University of Silesia in Poland.
“Our research suggests that e-cigarette use is rapidly increasing among youth in Poland,” said Dr. Goniewicz. “This study adds to a growing body of evidence that e-cigarette use is increasing not only among adult smokers, but also among adolescents around the world. Further studies are necessary to illuminate our understanding of the reasons for this phenomenon and to help determine if e-cigarettes are a gateway to traditional cigarette use.”
October 20, 2014
Good for ACS CAN in calling out Governor Brown for taking $100,000 from Philip Morris. He should do what ACS asks and give the money back (and pledge not to take any more).
The reality is that neither Proposition 1 (which deals with a rainy day fund in the budget) and Proposition 2 (which is a water bond) have anything to do with tobacco. This is a bald effort to buy influence pure and simple.
Here is their press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2014
Contact: Stephanie Winn McCorkle
Associate Director of Media Advocacy, Western Region
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: 916 802-4033
Email: [email protected]
ACS CAN CALLS ON GOVERNOR BROWN TO RETURN THE $100,000 CONTRIBUTION FROM PHILIP MORRIS TO PROPOSITIONS 1 & 2
SACRAMENTO – Philip Morris contributed $100,000 to Governor Brown’s ballot measure committee established to support Propositions 1& 2, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) strongly encourages the governor to return those funds.