Search

She Loves to VapeDr. Gilbert Ross' op-ed in Forbes.com, December 17, 2013

What's Bloomberg Smokin' Now? There is no reason to question why soon-to-be-former Mayor Michael Bloomberg has once again sic'd his attack dog of a Health Commissioner, Tom, Farley, on another innocent victim: electronic cigarettes (e-cigs). Read more.

E-cigarette, fancy

Never mind that the New York Times Style section today can t seem to tell the difference between smoking and vaping. The latter is the term that has been adopted by the majority of the large and growing e-cigarette community, and at least for the foreseeable future will pass as an adequate substitute for the...

Join ACSH directors of bio-sciences and medicine, Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein, as they break down these stories:

Nicotine has been in the news a lot between the plan to remove JUUL, a nicotine delivery system from the market, and the FDA proposal to require cigarettes to have lower nicotine levels. I asked myself a simple question for which I did not have a ready answer, what amount of nicotine is necessary to get you addicted— what dose makes the poison?

  • ...

Using nicotine habitually is a bad idea. It is worse when delivered by combustion, with fewer health consequences when vaporized. We have always said that vaping nicotine is a gateway or path to smoking cessation. Much of the current vaping concerns suggest that it is a gateway in the other direction to smoking cigarettes; a new paper in Nicotine and Tobacco Research looks at the possibility. [1]

Does vaping serve as a gateway to tobacco use is a reasonable concern; about 50% of adolescents vaping use other tobacco products. But here is the thing, “e-cigarette smokers are more similar to conventional cigarette smokers than they are to nontobacco users in terms of demographics, smoking-related mediators, and behavioral characteristics.” So perhaps this is a chicken or egg dilemma...

As the calendar turns to September, football fans across America rejoice as NFL and college teams once again take the field. In between watching our favorite teams, we have continued to fight the good fight for science and health. Here's where ACSH appeared in the past couple of weeks:

(1) Dr. Josh Bloom, who is an expert on opioids, was cited by National Review about how the government's strategy to fight the epidemic is wrongheaded and counterproductive. In short, restricting prescription opioids does not address the problem (which is illicit fentanyl) and prevents chronic pain patients from getting the medicine they need to survive. As National Review said, "[T]he drug...

Everyone agrees smoking is bad these days but how to end it has become its own cultural war, and the warring sides have come down along predictable lines. Some believe in abstinence only, some only think there should be products that are for quitting (cessation) while some believe smokers should have options for that which can also help with harm reduction while they quit. Like other cultural wars related to science and health, the sides can now be predicted politically.

It's also no surprise that one side of the culture war has flipped the narrative and declared that smoking cessation and harm reduction using e-cigarettes ("vaping") don't do anything of the kind, they instead create nicotine addiction - just like cigarettes. Even if there is no nicotine. ...

The town of Lemon Grove, California, has banned e-cigarettes in bars and restaurants and in public areas like parks, effective October 1st. If that seems a lot like cigarette rules, that is what they intended.

Critics argue conflating the two makes no sense. They both contain nicotine, but so do gums and patches. None of them contain tobacco smoke, which does have hundreds of dangerous chemicals and has been shown to be a risk factor for numerous diseases for over 50 years.

If the rationale is smoke, banning e-cigarettes is not evidence-based but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has instead argued both that they...

Relax with WineAlthough they probably don t realize it, teens have discovered a potentially deadly way of getting drunk inhaling alcohol vapors sometimes called vaping (not to be confused with use of electronic cigarettes). As reported on WCBS-TV (channel 2 in New York), alcohol vapor inhalation sends the drug directly to the bloodstream, resulting in a much faster high than if the same amount had been consumed normally.

But not only is the effect faster, it...

ByeBye cigs, Hello e-cigsA study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors lends further support to the accumulating literature on the major benefits of e-cigarette use (vaping) in helping smokers quit their deadly habit. Two experts in addiction...

The other day, CNN hosted a 7-hour long climate change town hall for the Democratic presidential candidates. This, of course, isn't the only scientific topic of relevance to Americans. If we were running the debate, we would ask questions about the following science and health topics:

Vaccines. Measles and other vaccine-preventable infectious diseases are on the rise, largely due to anti-vaxxer propaganda.

  • California has passed new laws that will require the state to investigate doctors who hand out more than five vaccine exemptions per year and schools whose immunization rates are below 95%. Should this law be adopted nationwide?
  • Should social media accounts that distribute anti-vaxxer propaganda be shut down? If so, by whom?
  • ...