January 19, 2019
Eric Crosbie, Stella Bialous, and I just published “Memoranda of understanding: a tobacco industry strategy to undermine illicit tobacco trade policies” in Tobacco Control. This paper expands our understanding of how tobacco companies have worked for decades to co-opt governments to undermine effective control of illegal cigarette smuggling. It reinforces the importance of FCTC Article 5.3 and ratification and effective implementation of the new Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.
Here is What This Paper Adds:
What is already known on this subject
- For decades, transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have promoted voluntary self-regulation agreements to avoid stricter tobacco control regulations.
- TTCs have been directly or indirectly involved with and benefiting from illicit tobacco trade for decades.
- TTCs have promoted their own tracking system (Inexto Suite, previously known as Codentify) to displace government action to monitor the supply side of illicit tobacco trade.
What important gaps in knowledge exist on this topic
January 16, 2019
My colleagues at UCSF, Georgia State University, and Stanford just submitted this public comment to FDA. The tracking number on Regulations.gov is 1k3-97pu-m56t. A PDF of the comment is here. We also submitted this comment to TPSAC for its consideration; this letter, which summarizes the main points in the comment, is available here.
The revised Swedish Match modified risk tobacco product application for General Snus fails to provide evidence that the claim is not misleading and will have a beneficial effect on the population as a whole
January 16, 2019
My colleagues at UCSF, Stanford, and Georgia State University just submitted this public comment to FDA. The tracking number on Regulations.gov is 1k3-97ps-3u1q. A PDF of the comment is available here. We also submitted this comment to TPSAC for its consideration; this letter, which summarizes the main points in the comment, is available here.
FDA should not permit the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company to market Copenhagen Snuff with modified risk claims
UCSF TCORS
Benjamin Chaffee, Lucy Popova1, Lauren Lempert, Bonnie Halpern-Felsher2, Wendy Max, Victoria Churchill1, Pamela Ling, Stanton Glantz
University of California San Francisco TCORS
1 Georgia State University
2 Stanford University
January 16, 2019
January 11, 2019
Annaliese Mathers, Ben Hawkins, and Kelley Lee just published the best overall assessment of how new tobacco products, most notably e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, fit into the transnational tobacco companies’ business and political plans. Their paper, “Transnational Tobacco Companies and New Nicotine Delivery Systems” published in American Journal of Public Health, includes a comprehensive global analysis of all the major brands and products and how they relate to the transnational tobacco companies in two informative tables.
January 3, 2019
To much fanfare (New York Times, Washington Post, CNN), on November 15, 2018 FDA announced several actions (Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb)to address dramatic increases (link1, link2) in youth e-cigarette and nicotine use. FDA wants to reduce kids’ access to flavored tobacco products and even talked about finally banning menthol in cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The good news is that FDA is recognizing that flavors and e-cigarettes are a big problem for kids, but, on closer inspection, most of FDA’s proposals will have little immediate impact.