June 21, 2014
Sujatha Sankaran, Heikki Hiilamo, and I just published "Implementation of graphic health warning labels on tobacco products in India: the interplay between the cigarette and the bidi industries" in Tobacco Control.
Here is the abstract:
Objectives To understand the competition between and among tobacco companies and health groups that led to graphical health warning labels (GHWL) on all tobacco products in India.
Methods Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents in the Legacy Tobacco Document Library, documents obtained through India’s Right to Information
Act, and news reports.
Results Implementation of GHWLs in India reflects a complex interplay between the government and the cigarette and bidi industries, who have shared as well as
conflicting interests. Joint lobbying by national-level tobacco companies (that are foreign subsidiaries of multinationals) and local producers of other forms of
tobacco blocked GHWLs for decades and delayed the implementation of effective GHWLs after they were mandated in 2007. Tobacco control activists used public
interest lawsuits and the Right to Information Act to win government implementation of GHWLs on cigarette, bidi and smokeless tobacco packs in May 2009 and rotating GHWLs in December 2011.
June 20, 2014
Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZRMumYtYFM
This is, of course, part of Lorillard/Blu's ongoing advertising campaign promoting harm reduction; for earlier efforts, click here.
June 15, 2014
The following letter, signed by 129 public health and medical experts from 31 countries, representing every WHO region, was delivered to WHO Director General Margaret Chan earlier today. (PDF of letter)
I also submitted the letter to the FDA dockett on e-cigs; the tracking number is 1jy-8cp3-dzmg.
June 16, 2014
Dr. Margaret Chan
Director General
World Health Organization
Geneva
Dear Dr. Chan,
We, the 129 signatories to this letter, are writing to express our support for WHO’s evidence-based approach to determine the best way forward for public health to respond to Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), as expressed in WHO's June 3, 2014 statement.[1]
June 15, 2014
The following letter, signed by 122 public health and medical experts from 31 countries, representing every WHO region, was delivered to WHO Director General Margaret Chan earlier today. (PDF of letter)
An updated version of the letter, with 129 signatures, is here.
June 16, 2014
Dr. Margaret Chan
Director General
World Health Organization
Geneva
Dear Dr. Chan,
We, the 122 signatories to this letter, are writing to express our support for WHO’s evidence-based approach to determine the best way forward for public health to respond to Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), as expressed in WHO's June 3, 2014 statement.[1]
June 15, 2014
Lauren Lempert and I just submitted this public comment to FDA. The comment number is 1jy-8cos-3k4o.
FDA Should Not Extend the Compliance Period for Marketing Applications and Other Submissions
Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0189
Lauren K. Lempert, JD, MPH and Stanton A. Glantz, PhD
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education
University of California San Francisco
June 15, 2014
There is no rational justification for FDA’s proposal to extend the compliance period for submitting a marketing application under either the substantial equivalence (SE) pathway or the premarket tobacco application (PMTA) pathway to 24 months following the effective date of a final rule under the current rule making. The FDA should shorten the compliance periods to no more than 6 months.
Premarket authorization and the substantial equivalence loophole