April 26, 2018
Ken Warner and David Mendez recently published another population model to estimate the public health effects of the advent of e-cigarettes, “E-cigarettes: Comparing the Possible Risks of Increasing Smoking Initiation with the Potential Benefits of Increasing Smoking Cessation,” in Nicotine and Tobacco Research. In contrast to several (but not all) earlier models, they found population benefits, “[w]ith base-case assumptions, the population gains almost 3.3 million life-years by 2070.”
The question several people have asked me, is why such different conclusions?
Most of these models are generally structured to project the effects of e-cigarettes over time as the population ages and people enter and leave the tobacco market by starting to use tobacco, stopping using tobacco, or dying. (The one Sara Kalkhoran and I developed is a steady state model at equilibrium.) While there are some differences in how people to this, these differences do not explain the different outcomes.
April 24, 2018
There has been growing public concern about the explosive growth of flavored tobacco products, particularly the explosive growth of JUUL e-cigarettes among kids.
Public health responded today on both coasts.
The California Department of Public Health launched a brilliant (and colorful) educational effort on the impact of flavored tobacco products on kids. You can see the TV ads on “the tobacco industry’s kids menu” here. At least two of the ads, Fruit Candy and Bedroom feature JUUL. The accompanying web page https://www.flavorshookkids.org/ gives loads of great information and shows the print ads.
I never cease to be amazed at how talented CDPH and their ad agency Duncan Channon are at taking complicated science and tobacco industry behavior and boiling them down to compelling messages that people can understand.
April 24, 2018
Recently the FDA issued a new guidance to the tobacco industry rolling back the amount of information that companies selling newly deemed products (e-cigarettes, hookah, and others) have to provide to the FDA. My colleagues and I just submitted this comment to the FDA pointing out the problems with the new guidance and how it will compromise the FDA’s ability to protect the public health. The Regulations.gov tracking number is 1k2-92rz-j3us. A PDF of the comment, which has all the footnotes, is available here.
FDA should revise its new guidance on listing of ingredients in tobacco products to require disclosure of all ingredients that can become toxic during normal use
Lauren K. Lempert, JD, MPH; Suzaynn Schick, PhD; Yogi H. Hendlin, PhD;
Neal L. Benowitz, MD; Peyton Jacob, PhD; Stanton A. Glantz, PhD
University of California San Francisco
April 24, 2018
Docket No. FDA-2009-D-0524
April 19, 2018
The UCSF Industry Documents Library (IDL) is pleased to announce the addition of two new collections to our Chemical Industry Documents Archive. These documents reveal the scientific, legislative, regulatory and public relations activities of the agrichemical industry in defense of its products and profits.
These documents can be searched at the same time as the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, making it easier to identify cross-industry connections.
April 18, 2018
I have previously commented on the fact that RJ Reynolds Tobacco’s $3.5 million (so far) campaign to try and repeal San Francisco’s path-breaking new law ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products is a replay of Big Tobacco’s unsuccessful effort to overturn the San Francisco workplace smoking ordinance in 1983.
Now, the tobacco companies are reaching back even further, to their unsuccessful campaign in 1988 to block Proposition 99, California’s landmark tobacco control education and research program. Back then they argued that if the voters increased cigarette taxes there would be a huge increase in crime. Check out their 1988 ads here. (Note that you have to wait for 30 seconds for the color bars to end.)
Then compare them to RJR’s 2018 ads seeking to overturn San Francisco’s flavor ban here.
With all that money, you would think that the tobacco companies could come up with a new idea.
If people want to support the law, vote Yes on Proposition E this June. If you want to overturn it, vote No.