June 5, 2017
On May 26, 2017, we submitted this public comment on FDA's proposal to do more research on text warning labels for cigarettes. The tracking number is 1k1-8wlw-uulv. It is available as a PDF here./sites/g/files/tkssra4661/f/u9/UCSF%20TCORS%20comment%20on%20warning%20labels%20study-1k1-8wlw-uulv.pdf
FDA’s Proposed Collection of Information on the Experimental Study on Warning Statements for Cigarette Graphic Health Warnings
Should be Addressing the Graphic Images, not Merely the Textual Statements
Docket Number: FDA-2017-N-0932
UCSF TCORS
Lauren Lempert, Minji Kim, Lucy Popova,[1] Stanton Glantz
May 26, 2017
April 24, 2017
The FDA’s initial effort to implement graphic warning labels was blocked by the courts because warnings are supposed to be “factual” not “emotional.” Lucy Popova and colleagues just published a nice paper showing that this is a false dichotomy. The paper, “Factual text and emotional pictures: overcoming a false dichotomy of cigarette warning labels,” was published in Tobacco Control.
Here is the abstract:
Background In reviewing the first set of pictorial warning labels in the USA, the courts equated textual labels with facts and information, and images with emotion. This study tested the differences in perceived informativeness and emotion between textual and pictorial cigarette warning labels.
April 19, 2017
On Monday April 17, 2017, Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced legislation to prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol, in the City and County of San Francisco. While several other cities have enacted restrictions on flavors (and some that included menthol), this is the first blanket prohibition.
Introduction of this important law builds directly on educational activities about how menthol is used to target African American and other communities led by my colleague Valerie Yerger, Carol McGruder, and Phil Gardiner. The educational activities have been and will continue to be a key element of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center's SFCAN partnership with San Francisco to quickly reduce cancer in San Francisco. This is a great example of research translation from the ivory tower to the community.
March 31, 2017
The UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Archive is well-known an widely used by tobacco control researchers and advocates, as well as people interested in a wide range of other topics, such as global warming deniers (many of who have histories of working for Big Tobacco).
Few people realize that the tobacco documents are now part of the larger multi-industry UCSF Industry Documents Library that has included documents from Pharma for several years.
Now we have added a third collection of documents, the new Chemical Industry Documents Archive that has been launched with nearly 2,000 documents and more to come in May and beyond.
March 30, 2017
Every time I have posted a comment on a new study showing that e-cigarettes adversely affect blood vessels and blood in ways that increase risk of a heart attack, a friend and colleague who remains part of the (shrinking) collection of e-cigarette enthusiasts emails me and with he comment that, “if they are so bad where’s the evidence that e-cigarettes increase the risk of a heart attack?”
The first evidence just appeared.
Using the National Health Interview Survey (NIHS), a large national survey done in the US, Nardos Temesgen and colleagues at George Washington University, found that the odds of a heart attack increased by 42% among people who used e-cigarettes.
This increase in risk was on top of the increases in risk due to any smoking that the e-cigarette users were doing. This is a particularly important finding because most e-cigarette users are dual users who keep on smoking at the same time that they use e-cigarettes. What this means is that dual use of e-cigarettes with cigarettes is substantially more dangerous than smoking alone.