Harm Reduction

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that the rate of smokers twelve to seventeen years old using menthol cigarettes rose to 48 percent in 2008 from 44 percent in 2004.

The National Cancer Institute reports that one- and two-year survival rates for patients with advanced lung cancer have increased slightly over the past twenty years.

ACSH's friend and co-author of our 2006 report on tobacco harm reduction Bill Godshall passed along a study published in the Annals of Oncology about cancer rates in Europe.

This Thursday, November 19th, marks the 33rd "Great American Smokeout," in which smokers are encouraged to quit, even if only for one day. The goal is to make that Day One in the life of a smoker as a successful ex-smoker.

Under the tobacco regulation bill recently passed by Congress, flavoring in cigarettes will be banned to diminish the attraction of smoking to youth smokers, with the exception of menthol.

Duff Wilson reports in today s New York Times that advertising restrictions imposed on tobacco companies by the latest FDA regulation law are likely to be challenged as infringements on free speech.

The moment that ACSH staffers have been dreading has finally arrived. The U.S. Senate approved the bill granting regulatory authority of tobacco to the FDA.

The newest likely victim of the travesty that is the proposed FDA tobacco regulation bill is a dissolvable nicotine-delivery system developed by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company that could be a valuable cessation device.

Those who follow our work are well aware that ACSH experts have been dreading the imminent approval of a bill in the Senate which would establish FDA regulation of tobacco products.

ACSH staffers noticed that today s issues of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal both address the increasingly contentious issue of e-cigarettes, smokeless nicotine vaporizers that simulate a cigarette in order to circumvent smoking bans a