November 18, 2017
Yvette van der Eijk, Patricia A McDaniel, Stella A Bialous and I just published “United Nations Global Compact: an ‘Inroad’ into the UN and reputation boost for the tobacco industry” in Tobacco Control.
This paper shows how the tobacco companies capitalized on the UN’s efforts to engage the business community in its mission. Rather than moving tobacco companies toward supporting the UN’s activities to improve global conditions, the companies co-opted the Global Compact as part of their “corporate social responsibility” public relations programs to undermine global tobacco control.
The UN recently decided that tobacco companies were not eligible to participate in the Global Compact. It is time for other UN agencies, like the International Labor Organization and UNICEF, to follow suit.
Here is the “What this paper adds” section of the paper:
► Between 2003 and 2015, thirteen tobacco companies, subsidiaries and tobacco industry affiliates joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a UN initiative to engage corporations in supporting the UN’s mission.
► In September 2017, UNGC excluded companies that derive revenue from tobacco production or manufacture from participating in the compact.
November 15, 2017
Mark Olfert and his colleagues recently published “Chronic exposure to electronic cigarette (E-cig) results in impaired cardiovascular function in mice” in Journal of Applied Physiology. In this study they exposed mice to e-cigarette aerosol for 8 months and found changes in their blood vessels that indicate heightened heart disease risk. (These results are consistent with short-term studies in humans show that people who use e-cigarettes immediately have compromised functioning of their blood vessels.) The effects were comparable to those found in mice exposed to cigarette smoke.
Interestingly, they did not find effects on lung function, which differs from earlier work.
In any event, this paper adds to the strong and consistent case that e-cigarettes use brings substantial cardiovascular risk. Heart and vascular disease accounts for around half of smoker deaths.
Here is the abstract:
November 14, 2017
I gave a 45 minute lecture at the UC Sacramento Center on November 1, 2017 on “A Public Health Framework for Legalized Retail Marijuana: Avoiding a New Tobacco Industry.” You can view the lecture here and get copies of the slides and a policy brief here.
November 14, 2017
Matthew Springer and his group presented an important new study that adds to the case the Philip Morris’ IQOS has effects just like cigarettes. Here is AHA’s description of the study.
Heat-not-burn tobacco products may be ‘not so hot’ at protecting blood vessel function
ANAHEIM, California, Nov. 14, 2017 — Heat-not-burn devices may eliminate users’ exposure to tobacco smoke, but the vapor they produce has the same negative impact on blood vessel function as smoking, according to a preliminary animal study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2017, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians.
November 13, 2017
I just submitted this public comment to the FDA on PMI's Modified Risk Tobacco Product application for IQOS. The tracking number is 1k1-8zrx-juh9 and a PDF of the comment is avaiable here.
PMI’s Own Data on Biomarkers of Potential Harm in Americans Show that
IQOS is Not Detectably Different from Conventional Cigarettes,
so FDA Must Deny PMI’s Modified Risk Claims
Stanton A. Glantz, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Principal Investigator, UCSF Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science
University of California San Francisco
Docket Number: FDA-2017-D-3001
November 13, 2017