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This study examined how exposure to e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and cannabis smoke affects the cardiovascular system. Researchers found that even brief exposure can impair heart function and increase platelet aggregation, which may promote blood clot formation. More importantly, animals exposed to the smoke and aerosols from these products before a heart attack experienced greater heart damage, suggesting that these exposures can make the heart more vulnerable to injury during a heart attack. These findings are important because inhalable products are often perceived as safer alternatives to smoking cigarettes. These results challenge the assumption that non combustible or “reduced-harm” products are cardiovascularly benign and highlight the need to consider their potential effects on heart health.
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Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, is a co-author of a new article published in Nature Medicine this week titled “Long-term health risks of e-cigarettes after smoking cessation.”
Using data from the mandatory South Korean National Health Insurance Service, the authors found that former smokers who used e-cigarettes had a higher risk of lung cancer and mortality than those who did not use e-cigarettes. Among former smokers, those who used e-cigarettes had 56% higher risk of lung cancer incidence and 22% higher risk of all-cause mortality than non-users. Compared with…
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Lauren Lempert, JD, MPH, Research Specialist at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, Stella Bialous, RN, DrPH, FAAN, Associate Director for Global Tobacco Control Initiatives at CTCRE, and Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, CTCRE Director, are authors of a special communication in the latest issue of Tobacco Control. “California’s prohibition of flavored tobacco sales and the tobacco industry’s attempts to evade it” discusses a 2020 California state law prohibiting retail sales of most flavored tobacco products with ’characterizing flavors’, including menthol, and how major tobacco companies vigorously opposed the law and sought its repeal.
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"Tobacco use and associated factors among adults in Ghana: evidence from the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey,” a paper by Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Fellow Divine Darlington Logo, was just published in BMJ Open.
Using nationally representative data of the 2022 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from over 22,000 Ghanaians, researchers found that tobacco use remains significantly higher among men, but female smoking is increasing and warrants urgent attention. Researchers also identified substantial regional disparities, with Western North and Northern Ghana carrying a disproportionate burden. The findings provide important evidence for designing targeted, gender-sensitive tobacco control interventions and strengthening Ghana's national tobacco control strategy.
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A practice note by Mark Hawes, PhD, MSW, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Postdoctoral Scholar and Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Fellowship Co-Director at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education was just published in Health Promotion Practice.
To provide guidance on integrating trauma-informed principles into cessation treatment, the authors added a tobacco treatment module to the TAMAR trauma-informed care training and interviewed individuals representing program coordinators, tobacco treatment specialists, public health administrators, and research staff working with clients who had experienced trauma to…
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A research article by Prakash Kodali, PhD, MPhil, MPH, a Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education 2025 Visiting Scholar, and Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Fellowship Co-Director, was just published in PLOS One.
In this study, the authors explored the 2015−16 and 2019−21 Indian National Family Health Surveys, to assess the prevalence of receipt of healthcare provider advice to quit and its associated factors among male combustible tobacco users. While healthcare provider advice to quit did increase between the 2015−16 and 2019−21 surveys, it was…
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Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, along with Stanton Glantz, PhD, have published a new comment in Nature Human Behaviour that examines the growing evidence on the negative health and public health impacts of e-cigarettes.
In "E-cigarettes increase harm and should be discouraged", Ling and Glantz show that current evidence does not support the claim that e-cigarettes reduce tobacco-related harm. They discuss how e-cigarettes are associated with substantial disease risks, are not effective as real-world smoking cessation tools when used as consumer products, and…
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Below are the public comments that CTCRE and other agencies have submitted to the FDA in regards to tobacco issues. This post is current as of May 20, 2026.
May 2026: Unflavored Tobacco List
January 2026: Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting
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A paper authored by CTCRE 2025 Visiting Scholar Prakash Kodali, PhD, MPhil, MPH, was just published in the latest volume of Tobacco Induced Diseases. Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, is a co-author on the paper.
By conducting a secondary analysis of the 2018…
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CTCRE fellow Deanna Halliday, PhD, is the lead author of a new paper published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence titled "Daily patterns of substance use among young adults who vape nicotine and cannabis: Latent class analysis of smartphone-based daily diary data.”
Using 30 days of smartphone-based daily diaries from young adults who vape nicotine or cannabis, the study identified three distinct daily substance use patterns: nicotine-only vaping, nicotine and cannabis co-vaping, and combined combustible tobacco and cannabis use. Daily mood and cravings were linked to these patterns, with sadness predicting nicotine-only vaping…