September 30, 2013
Silvy Peeters and Anna Gilmore just published another fine paper, "Transnational Tobacco Company Interests in Smokeless Tobacco in Europe: Analysis of Internal Industry Documents and Contemporary Industry Materials," in PLoS Medicine. The analysis shows that, in contrast to the optimistic views of some harm enthusiasts (particularly in Europe), the tobacco companies are not trying to promote smokeless tobacco as a "harm reduction" strategy, but rather to protect cigarette sales for as long as possible.
The last paragraph (which I have broken into pieces for easier reading) of the paper sums things up:
... legalising snus sales in Europe may have considerably less benefit than envisaged and could have a number of harmful consequences. Perhaps of greater concern, however, .. are the recent industry investments in pure nicotine products. These raise two concerns.
September 28, 2013
The Live Webcast: E-Cigarettes: The Vapor This Time? is rapidly approaching. Already over 1000 people have registered, many from around the world. Please note that Dr. Natalie Walker, a colleague of Dr. Bullen from Auckland University National Institute for Health Innovation will be replacing him on the webcast panel due to a scheduling conflict. Dr. Walker is co-author on their recent article: Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation: a randomised controlled trial.
To register for this event, please go to: The Vapor This Time? CME credit will also be available for this webcast; details of which will be available later this month.
Thursday October 3, 2013 1:00pm – 4:00pm PDT
Health Sciences West Building (HSW), 301 Auditorium
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Parnassus Campus
Thursday October 3rd, 2013
1:00pm – 4:00pm PDT
E-Cigarettes: The Vapor This Time?
A Live Webcast
September 24, 2013
September 19, 2013
RUSH, a biopic that depicts the 1976 rivalry between Ferrari driver Nikki Lauda and MacLaren driver James Hunt. opens in LA today and nationally on September 27.
Philip Morris emblazoned its Marlboro brand on MacLaren team cars that season; it later switched its allegiance to Ferrari. As a result, the film is saturated with Marlboro imagery. While the film is rated "R" in the US for reasons other than tobacco, RUSH's theatrical trailers repeatedly display the Marlboro logo In recreated racetrack, pit and garage film footage. An early trailer also shows Hunt smoking.
In late August, Legacy, the American Academy of Pediatrics and six state Attorneys General wrote Universal, asking the studio to keep smoking and the Marlboro logo out of RUSH advertising seen by kids in print, on TV and online. John Britton (UK) also warned that RUSH's promotion would re-connect Marlboro to Formula One for another generation and asked that smoking and Marlboro logos be removed from the film's advertising material.
September 19, 2013
UCSF Awarded $20 Million Federal Grant on Tobacco Regulatory Science
New Research Will Help in Regulation of Tobacco Products to Protect Public Health
UC San Francisco will receive a five-year, $20 million grant as part of a first-of-its-kind tobacco science regulatory program by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
The overall aim is to conduct programs of multidisciplinary research that will inform the FDA’s regulation of the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco products to protect public health.
UCSF is one of 14 institutions nationally to be awarded the new Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS) grants.
The UCSF principal investigator is Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
“Our results will provide information that the FDA can use to improve its regulatory decision making,” Glantz said. “They will also help the public and public health authorities around the country and the world to develop better policies to curb the global tobacco epidemic.”