Tobacco Center Faculty Blog

Outstanding article summarizing the respiratory effects of e-cigarettes

October 14, 2019

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

Jeff Gotts, Sven-Eric Jordt, Rob McConnell, and Robert Tarran recently published “What are the respiratory effects of e-cigarettes?” in BMJ.  This article provides an extensive (and readable) comprehensive assessment of the evidence on the pulmonary effects of e-cigarettes, covering the population, clinical, animal, and cellular evidence on the effects of e-cigarettes.  (The paper has 193 citations.)  While dealing with technical matters, the authors do a remarkably good job of explaining their findings in a way that normal people can understand.

Everyone one following the e-cigarette debate should read this paper, especially the FDA and other regulatory authorities because it shows that the situation is a lot more complex than the idea that getting rid of combustion is all that is needed to make a product that is substantially safer than a cigarette.

Another favor that the authors do for readers (and regulators) is to include the tobacco industry-funded studies and make the point that most of the industry studies – unlike the rest of the literature – do not find lung problems with e-cigs.

Here is the abstract:

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UCSF Tobacco Center has added a strong cannabis research group

October 14, 2019

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

As cannabis use has increasingly become legalized, commercialized and normalized understanding the health effects (both positive and negative) and what the appropriate public health responses and policies should be has become increasingly important.  In addition to its direct importance, there are important interactions between cannabis and tobacco, both biologically and at a policy level.  In recognition of these changes, the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education has added a cannabis research focus group with 20 faculty.  Some have been working on tobacco for years, others are new.  Check out the people and range of research here:  https://tobacco.ucsf.edu/research-topics/556 .

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FDA’s proposed warningsand accompanying color images will promote public understanding of the negative health consequences of smoking and should be implemented with some improvements

October 12, 2019

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

My colleagues at UCSF, Stanford, and Georgia State submitted this public comment to FDA on its proposed graphic warnings.  A PDF is available here.  The tracking number on Regulations.gov is 1k3-9cp7-u6bc.

 

FDA’s proposed required textual warning label statements and accompanying color images will promote greater public understanding of the negative health consequences of smoking and should be implemented with some improvements

Lauren K. Lempert, JD, MPH; Benjamin Chaffee, DDS, MPH, PhD; Lucy Popova, PhD*; Minji Kim, PhD; Wendy Max, PhD; Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD; Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

 

UCSF TCORS

                                           * Georgia State University

Docket No. FDA-2019-N-3065

 

October 12, 2019

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UCSF TCORS public comment on expansion of FDA HPHC list

October 2, 2019

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

My colleagues at the UCSF TCORS have submitted this public comment to the FDA on additions to its Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents list.  We support the FDA's proposal to add 19 new constitutents to this list and suggest adding more, including menthol.  A PDF of the comment, including the appendix, is available here.  The regulations.goc tracking number is  1k3-9cij-8wgr.

 

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Media giants sandbag Senators on child-safety data about smoking in their programming

October 2, 2019

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

 

The entertainment industry digs in...Last April, with nicotine addiction soaring among American schoolchildren, three U.S. Senators quizzed America's media companies about their own dependence on tobacco.

The letters from Senators Blumenthal, Markey and Van Hollen posed two simple questions: In the past five years, how much of your entertainment programming contained tobacco imagery? How many kids have seen it? 

The Senators addressed thirteen companies.* Only Google provided any tobacco content and viewer data; Lionsgate did not reply at all.

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