Two recent studies offer a strong incentive for patients at risk of a heart attack to quit smoking and keep taking their daily dose of aspirin. An Italian study, led by Dr. Furio Colivicchi of San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome and just published in the American Journal of Cardiology, found that the resumption of smoking after a heart attack can raise a patient s risk of dying as much as five-fold.
Harm Reduction
A New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) perspective piece on electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) would have you believe that FDA-approved cessation methods like the patch are a superior means of quitting smoking compared to e-cigarettes and, therefore, smokers should not rely on these relatively new electronic devices to kick the habit. But as ACSH s Dr.
This week, ACSH s Jody Manley and Dr. Gilbert Ross sat in on the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee s (TPSAC) preliminary hearing on the safety of dissolvable tobacco products such as RJ Reynold s Camel Orbs lozenges and Altria s dissolvable tobacco sticks. While these products were pioneered by Star Scientific s Arriva and Stonewall about ten years ago, Star applied for FDA approval of their lozenges as reduced risk tobacco products earlier this year. However, the FDA does not currently have regulatory authority over dissolvable tobacco products. Ultimately, the TPSAC, an FDA advisory committee, will compile and evaluate data to advise the FDA on how to formulate a regulatory framework for these products. Dr.
On his TobaccoAnalysis blog, Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor in the department of community health sciences at Boston University s School of Public Health, criticizes the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) for failing once again to make a recommendation to the FDA regarding a possible ban on menthol cigarettes. TPSAC recently released an amended report following its first one issued in March, which originally stated that removing menthol cigarettes from the market would benefit the public s health. However, as Dr. Siegel observes, the new report has only minor revisions and, yet again, evades the task of making a real recommendation:
In a drug trial that would prove an advance for both HIV prevention and biotech, European scientists are testing the efficacy of an anti-HIV antibody that was cultivated via a genetically modified tobacco plant. The biological product, produced by the EU-funded Pharma Plant, would be used as a vaginal microbicide to prevent sexual transmission of HIV; it is currently being tested in 11 healthy women in Britain. If this Phase 1 study is successful, larger trials will follow, with the hope that the new antibody, called P2G12, can then be combined with others in a gel offering broad protection against HIV/AIDS.
The parliament in Reykjavik, Iceland is considering some radical tobacco legislation: banning the sale of cigarettes from the usual retail outlets and allowing only pharmacies to sell them. As part of a 10-year plan, cigarettes would be legal to purchase only from pharmacies to those over the age of 20; eventually, only those with a doctor s prescription would be allowed to buy them.
A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) commends three major movie studios (Comcast/Universal, Disney, and Time Warner/Warner Bros.) for eliminating the depiction of smoking in youth-rated films by 96 percent since 2005. However, smoking in G, PG, and PG-13 movies has fallen by only 42 percent in the rest of the industry. That s why study author Dr.
Diseased lungs. Corpses. Rotting teeth. A man smoking from a tracheotomy hole. These are some of the shocking images featured in the Food and Drug Administration s recently unveiled series of cigarette package warnings. The FDA asserts that these graphic warnings will serve public health by terrifying smokers into quitting. But ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, in an op-ed appearing in National Review Online, has her doubts. Writing about these Warnings That Don t Work, Dr.
Smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes are being recognized as safer, satisfying cigarette substitutes by increasing numbers of American smokers, writes ACSH advisor and professor of medicine at the University of Louisville Brad Rodu. Yet as Rodu also notes, Tobacco prohibitionists appear to be countering with a national misinformation campaign aimed at dissuading smokers from switching to smoke-free alternatives. To address this disconnect, Rodu has written a letter to one of tobacco harm reduction s major detractors, explaining why switching from cigarettes to smokeless provides almost all of the health benefits of complete tobacco abstinence.
Writing in the Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman harshly criticizes the FDA s latest mandate requiring cigarette packs to prominently display graphic warning labels. In addition to demonstrating large government overreach, Chapman says, the new ruling will hardly deter adults or teens from smoking. In fact, drawing on information brought to his attention by ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross, Chapman questions the scientific validity of recent FDA predictions that an estimated 213,000 fewer Americans will smoke in 2013, thanks to the new warning labels.
On the heels of the new graphic cigarette warning labels comes a proposed law in Australia that aims to institute plain packaging for all cigarette brands. The Australian government plans to ban company logos on cigarette packs while requiring they be sold in plain dark olive packaging. In addition, all brand names must appear in the same size and style of font; health warning labels will supplant traditional trademark logos.
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that, among prostate cancer patients, current smokers have an increased risk of prostate cancer mortality compared with non-smokers. Led by Dr. Stacey Kenfield and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers also found that the number of pack-years smoked was directly associated with an increased risk of death from prostate cancer. In this prospective observational study, over 5,300 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1986 and 2006 were recruited as part of the Health Professionals Follow-Up study.