My Response to Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' Article Published in The Hill
In aletter to the editor published inThe Hill, I respond to anop-ed piece published a few days ago inThe Hill by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. In that piece, the Campaign once again suggested that Big Tobacco is " peddl[ing] candy-flavored wares to kids. " It also argues that the current FDA e-cigarette deeming regulations are the best way to: " ensure that smokers have access to products that will actually benefit their health. "In my letter, I take issue with the contention that the current FDA regulations are inany wayhelping to ensure that smokers have access to products that will benefit their health (namely, e-...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 30, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

IN MY VIEW: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' Lying Has Got to Stop
In an action alert emailed today to its constituents, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids insinuated that the tobacco companies are producing gummy worm electronic cigarettes. The title of the email is " Gummy worms, " and the headline of the action alert states that " tobacco companies " are " luring kids with candy-flavored e-cigarettes and cigars. "As I ' ve noted previously, this is simply not true. None of the tobacco companies is producing gummy worm-flavored electronic cigarettes.While the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has every right to fight for a ban on e-cigarette flavorings (a policy with which I vigorously dis...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 28, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Anti-Vaping Advocates Support Indoor Vaping Bans Because We Don't Know if Secondhand Vaping is Harmful
In an interesting twist from the usual reasoning in public health, anti-vaping advocates are promoting the enactment of policies that ban vaping in public places not because secondhand vaping has been shown to have serious health hazards, but because it hasn ' t been proven to be benign.In anopinion piece published inTobacco Control, Dr. Simon Chapman and colleagues support a ban on vaping in public places because we don ' t know yet whether secondhand vaping is harmful. The authors write that: " those advocating for vaping to be allowed in smoke-free public places centre their case on gossamer-thin evidence that vapi...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 21, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

New York State Senator Uses " Alternative Facts " to Promote Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes
A New York State senator - Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) - hasintroduced legislation to ban the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes in New York. To promote this ban, he argued that cigarette companies are seducing kids to vape by selling fruit punch, gummy bear, and cotton candy e-cigarettes: " Kids are attracted to the numerous flavors that the cigarette companies are selling, such as fruit punch, gummy bear, cotton candy. "The Rest of the StorySenator Hoylman ' s position is based on " alternative facts, " or what prior to 2016 would have more simply been called a " lie. "Not a single one of the tobacco companies is prod...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 21, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Admits that Its Secret Campaign Promoted Youth Cigarette Addiction
Through a shocking revelation, we learned last week that a major, national anti-tobacco organization ran a secret campaign to promote youth cigarette addiction.The organization: The Campaign for Tobacco-Free KidsThe secret campaign: Federal lobbying against a ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes.The admission: This campaign promoted youth cigarette addiction by protecting the cigarette companies ' ability to market the most popular flavored cigarette (menthol) to youth and the campaign worked: menthol cigarette use among youth increased significantly thanks to the lobbying efforts of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.The re...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 19, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Op-Ed at Bloomberg View on FDA Regulation of Electronic Cigarettes
My op-ed on the FDA and regulation of electronic cigarettes appears todayhere. (Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary)
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 17, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

New York State Department of Health Urges Physicians to Discourage Patients from Quitting Unless They Use Big Pharma Products and Tells Vapers They Might as Well Go Back to Smoking
The New York State Department of Health has sent out a letter to medical professionals in the state, urging them to discourage patients from quitting smoking using e-cigarettes, even if they indicate unwillingness or lack of interest in nicotine replacement therapy or other smoking cessation drugs.In the February 2017 letter, the state health commissioner writes:" I encourage all health care providers to talk to their patients -- young and old alike -- about the dangers of e-cigarettes and to discourage their use. For patients who are already using traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes, there are currently seven FDA-appro...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 15, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

New Survey Shows that Most Physicians are Completely Misguided on E-Cigarette Recommendations; Anti-Tobacco Groups' Propaganda is Wreaking Havoc on the Public's Health
Apaper published in the current issue of theAnnals of the American Thoracic Society reports the results of a survey regarding physician recommendations to their patients about the use of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.(See: Nickels AS, Warner DO, Jenkins SM, Tilburt J, Hays JT. Pulmonologists ’ and Primary Care Physicians’ Responses to an Adult Patient with Asthma Who Inquires about Using Electronic Cigarettes as a Smoking Cessation Tool.Annals of the American Thoracic Society 2017; 14(3): 466-468.)Physicians were given a clinical scenario in which a patient who smokes seeks advice about smoking cessation....
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 14, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Surgeon General Continues to Lie about Tobacco in E-Cigarettes
In anarticle published earlier this month inJAMA Pediatrics, the Surgeon General claimed that electronic cigarettes: " are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars, and hookah. " The article repeatedly refers to e-cigarettes as a form of tobacco. In fact, the article contains four statements indicating that e-cigarettes are a " form of tobacco " or that vaping is a " form of tobacco use. "The Rest of the StoryThere ' s just one problem with the Surgeon General ' s claim that vaping is a form of tobacco use: it ' s not true.There is no tobacc...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 12, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

American Heart Association Sticks to Its Guns: " E-Cigarettes May Pose the Same or Higher Risk of Stroke " than Smoking
Earlier this week, I discussed apress release from the American Heart Association which claimed that vaping causes severe strokes and poses a higher risk of severe strokes than smoking. According to the press release:" E-cigarettes may pose the same or higher risk of stroke severity as tobacco smoke. " In mycommentary, I noted that the American Heart Association ' s conclusion that vaping poses an equal or higher risk of suffering a severe stroke is based on a single mouse study. In that study, which has not been published or peer reviewed, but was presented last week at the American Stroke Association ’s Internatio...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 2, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

American Heart Association Claims that Vaping Causes Severe Strokes and is More Risky than Smoking
In this study, which has not been published or peer reviewed, but was presented last week at the American Stroke Association ’s International Stroke Conference, the investigators found that mice exposed to e-cigarette aerosol for 10 days or 30 days had more severe strokes than those exposed to tobacco smoke.To extrapolate from this single pre-clinical, animal study to population-based human health effects is ludicrous. There are many reasons why stroke-related findings from rodent studies do not translate well to humans. For example, asBraeuninger andKleinschnitzpoint out:"There are, of course, significant physiological,...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 26, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Tobacco Control Journal: There Can Be No Legitimate Discussion of Our Articles Without Our Permission
In this study, the sample size of youth who were nonsmoking, recent vapers at baseline was only 13 and the number of youth in this category who " initiated " smoking was only 4. Thus, the sweeping conclusion of the paper, which has been publicized internationally, was based on only 4 kids! Moreover, despite having a sample size of 347 high school seniors, the study could not find a single student who became an actual new smoker after having experimented with e-cigarettes. The few students (a grand total of 4) who did try a cigarette or two did not progress beyond having one or two cigarettes.Rather than simply admit that i...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 20, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Kentucky Health Group is Deceiving Public About Risks of Smoking ... and It's Working
A Kentucky health group has orchestrated a campaign to deceive the public about the terrible health hazards associated with smoking by downplaying those risks. Sadly, a recent public opinion poll commissioned by the group demonstrated that its campaign of deceit is working. Adults in Kentucky have been completely fooled about the serious health risks of smoking.According to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky: " Research suggests that e-cigs may be a gateway to using other forms of tobacco, andthey can be just as harmful. "The Rest of the StoryThere is abundant evidence that vaping is much safer than smoking. In stating ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 13, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Tobacco Control Study Provides Strong Evidence that Vaping is Not a One-Way Bridge to Smoking
I have already shown (post 1;post 2) why the recently publishedstudy inTobacco Control which purported to demonstrate that vaping is a " one-way bridge to cigarette smoking among youth " actually provides no evidence that e-cigarette experimentation is a gateway to smoking.First, the exposed group consisted of any youth who had evenpuffed once on an e-cigarette in the past 30 days. Second, the outcome variable was having puffedeven once on a cigarette in thepast year. Thus, the study cannot document either that the " recent vapers " were actually regular vapers or that the youth who " initiated " smoking were actually smok...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 9, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Failure to Disclose Sample Size: A Flaw at Multiple Levels
Yesterday, Irevealed that a newstudy published in the journalTobacco Control which concluded that e-cigarettes are a " one-way bridge " to youth smoking failed to disclose the sample size upon which its major conclusion was based. It turns out that the paper ' s sweeping conclusion was based on only 4 kids who had tried an e-cigarette at baseline and went on to try a cigarette in the next year. That sample size was not even revealed in the online supplement to the article. I had to calculate it from the raw data. The supplement did reveal that there were only 13 nonsmokers in the study who had vaped in the past month. Thus...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 8, 2017 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs