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- Category: July 2019
A recent study raised concerns about e-cigarette liquids toxicity by reporting the presence of 14 flavouring chemicals with toxicity classification. However, the relevant toxicity classification was not estimated according to the measured concentrations. The purpose of this study was to calculate the toxicity classification for different health hazards for all the flavouring chemicals at the maximum concentrations reported. There was at least one toxicity classification for all the flavouring chemicals, with the most prevalent classifications related to skin, oral, eye and respiratory toxicities. One chemical (methyl cyclopentenolone) was found at a maximum (..)
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- Category: July 2019
Another study has linked vaping to heart attacks. However, just like the ones that preceded it, this study failed to specify what came first, the vaping or the heart attacks. The study (..) was published last month in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The cross-sectional study used data from the baseline survey of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) collected in 2013-2014, looking for a relationship between e-cig use and heart attacks. The study authors found that people who vaped were more likely to report ever having had a heart attack in the past, and subsequently concluded that e-cig use doubled one’s chances of having a heart attack.
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- Category: July 2019
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held two days of hearings last week on “JUUL’s Role in the Youth Nicotine Epidemic.” Make no mistake: the hearings were about congressional grandstanding, not a discussion of what really threatens American teens. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, the high school vaping rate is lower than that for marijuana and alcohol use. It’s about the same as binge drinking (four or five drinks within a couple hours). And, as we know, these activities don’t typically occur in a vacuum. High school students frequently drive after marijuana use, ride with a driver who has been drinking, text or email while driving, have sexual intercourse, and consider suicide.
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- Category: July 2019
Major obstacles to tobacco harm reduction exist in high-income, “western” countries from the United States to Australia. Yet it’s vital to remember that of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers, who suffer 7 million annual smoking-related deaths, around 80 percent live in low- or middle-income countries where challenges are very different. Cigarette consumption rose by 52 percent in sub-Saharan Africa between 1980 and 2016, and the region’s fast-growing population means smokers’ numbers are set to swell further—underlining the urgency of Magero’s point.
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- Category: July 2019
A group of cross-party MPs who've been on a fact-finding trip to Canada predict the UK will fully legalise cannabis use within five to ten years. Canada became the first G7 country to allow recreational use of the drug in 2018. Of the three politicians in the group one had a significant shift in his position. Labour's David Lammy now backs legalisation, against his party's official stance.
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- Category: July 2019
Cigarette smoking is the cause of more premature deaths than traffic accidents, AIDS, other drugs, alcohol, homicide and suicide taken jointly. In 2014, Poland was placed 23rd in the global tobacco production ranking and currently belongs to the five largest tobacco producers in the European Union (..) Addiction should be treated neither as a rational choice nor as a disease, but as an individual’s activity aimed at solving existential, emotional and social problems troubling the individual. It seems now feasible and realistic to achieve the “smoke-free world” goal, but not necessarily a “tobacco & nicotine-free world”. However, given that all the previously presented data clearly indicate that it is not directly nicotine that is a health problem (..)
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- Category: July 2019
Karl Erik Lund first puffed on a cigarette at a party not long after smoking rates peaked in Norway. In the mid 1970s, almost half of adults in the country smoked. Lund, who is now 60, was young and would never take to smoking in a big way. But in 1986, as a graduate in Oslo, he spotted an advert for a research role at the government agency that collated tobacco statistics. He needed the money, but he soon became addicted to the data. “I wanted to ask the question: why do people keep going with a behaviour that breaks society’s rules?” he says.
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- Category: July 2019
Many more tobacco users want to quit, but less than a third of them have access to smoking cessation help, reports a new study. The seventh WHO report on tobacco use worldwide points out that while 1.1 billion adults currently smoke, many countries still lack effective quitting programs. (..) Current global policies aim at a 30% reduction in tobacco use. The benchmark is the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) describing tried and tested measures to reduce tobacco demand, tobacco-related disease and deaths.
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- Category: July 2019
Māori health promotion agency Hāpai Te Hauora is calling out some large New Zealand firms for helping big tobacco make a grab for the vaping market. National tobacco control advocacy manager Mihi Blair says delays in the Government developing regulations means vaping is being promoted by some vendors as a replacement for smoking rather than a way to quit. While most New Zealand vaping companies are passionate about helping people break their addiction to cigarettes, big tobacco is pushing its alternative tobacco products into Māori communities. "So we are seeing a big change in the tobacco market but we also need to call out big companies like Pak'n'Save and BP who are accepting these products from big tobacco. They are the ones pushing big tobacco (..)"
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- Category: July 2019
The e-cigarette company, Juul, is defending itself to lawmakers who blame the company for its role in the teen vaping epidemic. (..) The president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids compared Juul’s marketing efforts to those used by Big Tobacco 40 years ago, specifically targeting teenagers. "There is one difference- Juul had a different tool than the old cigarette companies, social media, and they used it brilliantly," said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "They used it with images that are exactly the kind of images that we know from study after study after study appeal directly to kids." This week, the FDA launched its own $60 million campaign called “The Real Cost” to educate teens on the risks of e-cigarettes, but still, some parents say it’s not enough.
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- Category: July 2019
San Francisco recently became the first US city to ban sales of e-cigarettes, citing the fact that the long-term health effects of vaping are still unknown and that there seems to be an upswing in young vapers. However, some people believe this decision may turn former smokers who now vape back onto traditional tobacco products. Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham, explains. It’s not something that’s happening anywhere else in the world. I think the USA generally and San Francisco particularly is getting into something of a moral panic. What they have had, over the last year (..)
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- Category: July 2019
Electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products are not helping fight cancer, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, urging smokers and governments not to trust claims from cigarette firms about their latest products. The seventh “WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic” said blocking the industry’s interference was critical to cutting the harm from tobacco use. “The tobacco industry has a long history of systemic, aggressive, sustained and well-resourced opposition to tobacco control measures,” the report said. “While some strategies are public and others more covert.. all have the goal of weakening tobacco control.”
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- Category: July 2019
Altria is set to release its Q2 2019 earnings report on July 30, 2019, followed by a conference call with analysts. Key Expectations: Altria Revenues have been decreasing over the last three quarters due to the decline in the sales of cigarettes; Higher revenue is likely to be driven by healthy growth in Altria’s smokeless division, on the back of millennials shifting from combustible products to e-vapor and other non-combustible options; Improvement in earnings is likely to be a reflection of higher revenues, gradual withdrawal of discounts and other promotional offers on smokeless products, and benefits of the cost reduction program, being partially offset by higher interest expense (..)
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- Category: July 2019
Until not so very long ago Greek MPs thought nothing of lighting up in the august halls of the Athens parliament. So common was the habit that a thick fog of cigarette smoke often hovered over the building’s cafe, a few metres from the legislative chamber where deputies had once voted to ban smoking in all public spaces, including the 300-seat House. Nine years, 10 months and 26 days after that ban came into effect, lawmakers are finally being forced to abide by it too. “There’s definitely been a change,” said Dimitris Tarantsas, who has (..)
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- Category: July 2019
A stepwise binary logistic regression showed that the best predictors of the intention to smoke tobacco in the future were: having tried tobacco, being a current consumer, having a family member smoking at home and having a low perceived risk of smoking. The best predictors of the intention to use electronic cigarettes in the future were: having tried tobacco, being a current consumer and having friends who smoke or use electronic cigarettes (..)
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- Category: July 2019
The FDA has launched one of its strongest attacks on vaping yet, with a new campaign featuring misleading images and misunderstood statistics. Meanwhile vape taxes continue to spread across the USA, with Kentucky among the latest states to consider penalising safer alternatives to tobacco. While Democrat politicians continue to be the strongest opponents of harm reduction it’s now becoming a bipartisan issue, with US vapers left with few friends at court.
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- Category: July 2019
An advocacy group on tobacco control has asked the government not to issue license for smoke free cigarettes which are set be introduced in the country. Kenya Tobacco Control Alliance (KETCA) says there is no enough evidence to the claim that smoke free cigarettes are less harmful compared to actual cigarette sticks. Smoke free cigarettes are not consumed by puffing in smoke from burning tobacco. Instead, they can be ingested. Ideally, they are not supposed to contain tobacco, as one of the ways to encourage individuals to quit, but they usually come as an alternative to smoking which has more side effects.
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- Category: July 2019
Today, cigarette smoking remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States. So why are cities and towns coast to coast taking harm-reduction alternatives off the shelves while allowing Marlboros to remain? Last month, San Francisco banned the sale, including the online sale, of e-cigarettes. Around the same time, Brookline, a Boston suburb, did the same thing. Livermore, Calif., followed suit. Also moving in this direction are Morristown, N.J., Blufton, S.C., and Seattle.
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- Category: July 2019
On July 26, the World Health Organization released a report on global tobacco use which urges governments to step up efforts to help smokers quit. There is no question that the best choice is never to start using cigarettes or nicotine-containing products or if someone has, they should quit altogether. By encouraging governments to double down on efforts to help men and women who smoke quit, the WHO takes an admirable stance. But the reality is that even with the best treatments available today, many people will not succeed. In any given year, about nine out of 10 men and women who are already smoking will continue to do so; in turn, their risk of smoking-related disease will continue to increase.
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- Category: July 2019
More research has shown raising the smoking age can keep people from becoming every day smokers. The chance of becoming a regular smoker falls by 39 percent for people between ages 18 and 20 when the legal age moves up to 21, according to a study published Thursday in Addiction. Those odds drop by 50 percent when a 16-year-old has a close friend who smokes.