Today’s New York Times had a pair of letters which contained some of the most brazen misinformation bordering on plain deception that we here at ACSH have ever witnessed. The first one came from a John S. Shaw, the Executive Director and Chief Executive of the Natural Products Association, writing from D.C. In an attempt [...]
The post Deceptive letter day at the New York Times appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
Harm Reduction
Yesterday, America’s biggest tobacco company announced its entry into the now-crowded e-cigarette market. Altria/Phillip Morris USA advised via news release that a subsidiary will start selling the MarkTen brand of e-cigarettes in Indiana later this summer. They will join Lorillard’s Blu and RJR’s Vuse (the latter will be sold only in limited regions of Colorado [...]
The post Big e-cigarette news, here and abroad appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
This week, another member of the old-guard tobacco companies moved from ankle- to knee-deep in the accelerating e-cigarette free-for-all. RJReynolds’ branch of tobacco giant Reynolds American, the 2nd largest tobacco company (after Phillip Morris), launched its new, sophisticated electronic cigarette, called Vuse. It has some features unique to this product, aimed at making attempting to [...]
The post Another “Big Tobacco” player enters the e-cigarette market appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
A survey of general practitioners in the UK and Sweden revealed that a sizable fraction of them wrongly believed that it’s the nicotine in cigarette smoke that harms health. The online survey was undertaken by UK tobacco giant BAT, and they got responses from 100 British and 120 Swedish physicians. (The study itself is not [...]
The post What doctors don’t know about nicotine can hurt…you! appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
A new report out of the vast Cochrane Library database reveals that several of the commonly used products to help smokers quit actually do work! Or do they? These results are derived from a huge meta-analysis of 267 trials involving 101,000 study subjects who were given one or more nicotine-replacement treatments (NRTs) and/or drugs such [...]
The post Big (no) news: Cessation products work better than nothing! appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
So we’ve come to another World No Tobacco Day, under the auspices of the WHO. The ostensible goal of this annual campaign is to reduce the consumption of tobacco products, thereby reducing the deadly toll of tobacco. Unfortunately, outside of the U.S., little progress against the ravages of tobacco have been detected; indeed, smoking rates [...]
The post World “No Tobacco” Day: Avoiding the real problem appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
Last week, the California Senate passed a proposed bill, SB648, by a 21-10 vote, banning the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) anywhere that smoking (of regular tobacco cigarettes) is banned. In essence, if the Assembly joins in and the measure becomes law, in our largest state e-cigs would be treated as equivalent to cigarettes for [...]
The post Cali lawmakers cannot tell smoke from vapor appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
Seeing the handwriting on the wall — historically unprecedented declines in cigarette sales matched with accelerated sales for electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) – old-line “Big Tobacco” companies are now selling, or getting ready to sell, their own versions of the new devices. First in line was Lorillard, which purchased Blu e-cigarettes last April 2012. Now, RJReynolds [...]
The post Big Tobacco enters e-cigarette market. Hooray. appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
Here’s an interesting idea: a set of underwear that can sense when a person smokes. Although this may not sound real, the National Institutes of Health actually awarded the University of Alabama two grants, totaling about $400,000 to make this project a reality. This money was used for two separate studies. One study involved bringing [...]
The post Underwear that can detect cigarette smoking appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
Those who are trying to impede the spread of the reduced-harm nicotine delivery device known as the e-cigarette will find their task at least a bit harder henceforth. One of the pseudo-arguments against smokers using this technology to help them quit is that young people who are non-smokers might find the devices attractive, try [...]
The post Anti e-cigarette propaganda exposed appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross appeared — again — before the FDA advisory committee on tobacco products regulation. That panel, officially the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, is required to meet periodically by the 2009 Tobacco Control Act and get public commentary on various relevant topics. Yesterday’s meeting was a discussion about how the FDA’s Center [...]
The post Latest FDA tobacco panel hearing: same old, same old? appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.
Reports of recent sales and earnings from tobacco companies and surveys of e-cigarette users (“vapers”) yield a drumbeat of near-miraculous good news: parallel historic declines in Big Tobacco’s cigarette sales, paired with annual doubling of e-cigarette sales. Remember two key factors: 1-electronic cigarettes provide vapers with their craved drug, nicotine, along with water vapor and [...]
The post The e-cigarette phenomenon: why the silence? appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.