ACSH is joining several public health and interest groups as an amicus, or friend of the court, to appeal the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to treat e-cigarettes as drug delivery systems rather than as tobacco products. E-cigarettes are a recently developed nicotine alternative that mimics tobacco smoking without the inhalation or emission of the harmful tobacco combustion products that come from smoking cigarettes.
Harm Reduction
Duff Wilson of the New York Times presents new CDC data indicating that the teenage smoking rate has not declined fast enough, failing to reach the goal of 16 percent by 2010. Currently, high school students make up approximately 20 percent of smokers.
“This is still generally good news,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “Nineteen-plus percent is still an improvement over the smoking rates observed some 13 years ago. But the lack of more progress clearly means that we should not be complacent — one-fifth of high-schoolers smoking is simply unacceptable in the long-term.”
Smoking Cessation Can Tobacco Be Part Of The Solution?
Turin, Italy (July 6, 2010) -- The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today led a panel of the world s leading tobacco and nicotine experts on science and policy in the area of Tobacco Harm Reduction i.e. how smokeless tobacco products can be used as a small backfire to put out the larger, more deadly forest fire of cigarette smoking.
Reducing the deadly toll of cigarette smoking through Tobacco Harm Reduction was the subject of a session at the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF), currently underway in Turin.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross greeted staff this morning with a spirited Buon giorno! upon his return from the July 2-7 Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) conference series in Turin, Italy during which ACSH hosted a presentation on Reducing the toll of smoking-related disease and death: the case for tobacco harm reduction. The three keynote speakers included Karl-Olov Fagerstrom, Karl Erik Lund, and Lars Ramstrom world-renowned science and policy experts on tobacco and nicotine.
Yesterday we commented on Mayor Michael Bloomberg s endorsement of a plan to ban smoking in parks and beaches based in part on a New York City-funded study in 2009 claiming that 57 percent of non-smoking New York City adults, compared to 45 percent nationally, tested positive for the presence of cotinine, a marker for nicotine exposure.
With due diligence, ACSH s Jeff Stier found the original publication of the cited study which states:
Today s New York Times reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to ban smoking in City parks and beaches. Among the goals he hopes to achieve with such a ban is reducing health risks associated with second hand smoke. His health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, cites a New York City-funded study claiming that 57 percent of non-smoking New York City adults, compared to 45 percent nationally, tested positive for the presence of cotinine in their blood. Cotinine is a substance whose presence in the blood stream is an indicator of cigarette smoking.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan was interviewed by Voice of America television last week about the FDA s legal jurisdiction over cigarettes. The show airs in markets around the globe.
She expressed the ACSH position that while "regulation of cigarettes" may be a concept that appeals to many, the fact is that the details of the legislation giving the FDA regulatory power over cigarettes suggests that such legislation may threaten, not improve public health.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross will be heading to Turin, Italy tomorrow to attend the European Science Open Forum (ESOF) meeting from July 2 through July 7. Next Tuesday, July 6, he will be moderating an ACSH-led presentation on "Tobacco Harm Reduction" with three presentations by world-renowned experts, Karl Fagerstrom and Lars Ramstrom of Sweden, and Karl-Erik Lund of Norway.
The UK s National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is proposing that all pregnant women receive breath tests to determine whether they smoke or have been exposed to secondhand smoke. The new recommendation aims to curb adverse health effects in newborns born to smoking mothers.
Currently, pregnant women are asked about their smoking habits by midwives and general practitioners. In its present form, this is a policy we can endorse. However, by testing for smoking or secondhand smoke, you run into issues of government intrusion and privacy issues, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross.
A federal judge certified a class-action lawsuit that asks cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris to pay for chest scans to screen for early signs of lung cancer in Massachusetts smokers.
With the FDA’s ban on the words such as “light,” “mild,” “medium,” and “low-tar” from cigarette packaging going into effect today, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. have switched to colored packaging to communicate differences in products. The FDA is challenging this use of colors, arguing that it suggests certain products are safer.
In today’s Winston Salem Journal, ACSH’s Jeff Stier weighs in on the FDA’s effort to ban certain types of colored packaging:
Starting July 1, people who buy cigarettes in New York will have to fork over an extra $1.60 per cigarette pack in state taxes according to a new law passed yesterday by the Legislature. This will bring the total cost of cigarettes to approximately $12.00 a pack.
“Touted as a public health initiative to deter people from smoking with a side benefit of generating revenue, the law should be more accurately described as an attempt to bridge the looming state budget deficit — a financial ploy with questionable positive health effects,” says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “These higher taxes will only lead to people crossing state boundaries or resorting to the Internet to purchase their cigarettes.”