November 5, 2018
Alameda, CA is considering an ordinance to license tobacco retailers and prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products. Retailers are arguing that chewing tobacco should be exempted becuase theh claim the average age of those that chew is 40. I asked my colleague Ben Chaffee about this and here is what he had to say:
While smokeless (dip and chew) has been traditionally been a product for older adults, the last several decades have seen a major shift toward use by younger consumers (and marketing to them).
Smokeless tobacco consumption in the United States overall has been on the rise. {Bhattacharyya N. Trends in the use of smokeless tobacco in United States, 2000-2010. Laryngoscope 2012;122(10):2175-8; Chang JT, Levy DT, Meza R. Trends and Factors Related to Smokeless Tobacco Use in the United States. Nicotine Tob Res 2016;18(8):1740-8; Lipari RN. Trends in Smokeless Tobacco Use and Initiation: 2002 to 2012. The CBHSQ Report. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2013.}
October 30, 2018
As more states legalize cannabis, specialty publications have been appearing that are designed to appeal to cannabis users. Ryan Halvorson, Christopher Stewart, and Aishwarya Thakur and I assessed the accuracy of reporting on health effects of cannabis in one such publication, Green State, which is published by the San Francisco Chronicle. We found that Green State was reasonably accurate in reporting on positive news but downplayed negative health effects. In contrast, reporting on the same issues in the main San Francisco Chronicle much more accurately reflected the state of scientific knowledge.
This analysis, including a detailed assessment of the individual news stories in both publications, appears in our paper “Scientific Quality of Health-Related Articles in Specialty Cannabis and General Newspapers in San Francisco” that was recently published in Journal of Health Communications.
Here is the abstract:
October 27, 2018
The recent memo leaked from the White House represents an unconscionable and insidious effort to legally erase trans people and trans identities. This plan seeks to discriminate against individuals by using “biological sex” as a strict definer of gender identity – a link that is scientifically unfounded.
We reject this anti-trans rhetoric and we stand in solidarity with our trans colleagues at UCSF and around the world. Anti-trans legislation and any related discriminatory policies run counter to UCSF’s core mission as an institute rooted in PRIDE values (professionalism, respect, integrity, diversity, excellence). We pledge to continue to use our resources and collective voice to take a strong stand against this effort to erase trans identities.
We have a long history of working with LGBT colleagues, be they faculty, students, fellows, staff or beyond UCSF. UCSF researchers also have conducted important research on how the tobacco companies target LGBT people, which helps explain their high smoking rates.
We are committed to working together with UCSF to provide full and public support for trans people and trans identities.
October 22, 2018
Tobacco Control just published a special supplement on heated tobacco products, in particular PMI’s IQOS. These papers use PMI’s own data as well as independent data to show that they are not as safe as PMI (and the other companies) claim. You can download the whole issue here; a table of contents and links to each of the individual papers is at the bottom of this blog post.
Here is the UCSF press release on the issue, with emphasis on the UCSF authors:
Heated Tobacco Product Claims by Tobacco Industry Scrutinized by UC San Francisco Researchers and Others in Independent Data Review
Fourteen of 22 Papers Published in a Special Issue of Tobacco Control on Health, Marketing and Regulatory Aspects of New Tobacco Product Feature UCSF Authors
Claims by the tobacco industry that heated tobacco products (HTPs) are safer than conventional cigarettes are not supported by the industry’s own data and are likely to be misunderstood by consumers, according to research published in a special issue of Tobacco Control.
October 21, 2018
JUUL, the e-cigarette that looks like a flash drive, is really efficient at delivering the addictive drug nicotine, and now dominates the kid market, is mirroring what the cigarette companies have done for decades in now claiming that they don’t want kids to smoke and promoting their own “youth smoking prevention” program.
As Jessica Liu and Bonnie Halpern-Felsher just pointed out in an insightful commentary published in Journal of Adolescent Health, “The JUUL curriculum is not the jewel of tobacco prevention education,” that the JUUL curricula looks just like similar curricula that the cigarette companies promoted since the 1980s whenever they felt pressure on the kids’ issue. As Liu and Halpern-Felsher note, the JUUL curriculum
- Blames kids and parents for kids’ JUUL use
- Does not stress that JUUL delivers nicotine, an addictive drug
- Ignores the role of JUUL’s advertising and social media promotions in the exploding youth use
- Does not forthrightly address the importance of the flavors that JUUL uses to attract and hold kids
If JUUL was serious they would drop flavors and stop their social marketing efforts.