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Massachusetts Department of Public Health Issues Emergency Order Banning the Sale of All Pets for Four Months
In response to anoutbreak of multi-drug resistant Campylobacter infections associated with the purchase of puppies from pet stores, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has issued a temporary, four-month ban on the sale of all animals by pet stores throughout the Commonwealth.The CDC concluded that the outbreak is being caused by puppies sold by pet stores based on the finding that 88% of the case patients reported contact with a puppy and 71% of these reported contact with a puppy from a pet store.The CDC conclusion is as follows: " Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicate that contact with puppies, especia...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 19, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Flavored E-Cigarette Bans are a Sure Way to Increase Youth Cigarette Consumption and Black Market THC Vaping
Sometimes the most important evidence in a public health debate come from the most important informants: the people who are actually affected by public health policy and who know what is happening on the ground. This morning,WGBHreported that the Massachusetts e-cigarette ban is leading youth to substitute real cigarettes or illegal THC vapes for their flavored e-cigarettes.As the article reports: " Some students say the ban did little to stop use of e-cigarettes and they want to be part of the solution. Sullivan [a youth] says the temporary ban was actually harmful to students: “It’s forcing students to buy rip-off pr...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 17, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Vapers Beware: New Study Does NOT Show that E-Cigarettes Cause Chronic Lung Disease
This study is deeply flawed because it fails to consider the most likely explanation for the study findings: that people who use e-cigarettes more likely have a history of more intense smoking than people who do not use e-cigarettes. For example, onestudy found that while only 21% of adult smokers who did not vape were heavy smokers, 68% of adult smokers who did vape were heavy smokers (or had been heavy smokers).This is critical because it shows that in order to control for smoking history properly in a study such as this one, you cannot merely control for whether or not someone was a current or ever smoker at baseline. Y...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 17, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Massachusetts DPH Admits that Rescinding the E-Cigarette Sales Ban " Will Almost Certainly Lead to More Cases of Severe Illness, and Potentially Deaths "
In court filings--both in state and federal court--the Massachusetts Department of Public Health strongly argued that allowing e-cigarettes to be sold in the Commonwealth, as it did by rescinding the emergency sales ban on December 11, will almost certainly lead to more cases of severe respiratory illness and possibly death.According to statements by both the governor and the Department of Public Health on December 11, the cause of the respiratory disease outbreak remains unknown and officials have not yet been able to pinpoint the specific source of the vaping-related illnesses. Therefore, according to the Department of P...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 16, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Massachusetts DPH Destroys Its Own Justification for the Emergency E-Cigarette Ban
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), via a vote by the Public Health Council, has rescinded its emergency ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes which was issued on September 25. When the ban was implemented in September, the Department ' s rationale was that since we don ' t know what is causing the outbreak, there may be e-cigarettes that could be involved. Therefore, to protect the public ' s health, we need to ban the sale of e-cigarettes.In rescinding the emergency order, DPH stated that the cause of the outbreak remains unknown. So by its own rationale which it invoked on September 25, there could s...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 13, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

The Height of Irresponsibility: Massachusetts Department of Public Health Tells Public the Cause of Respiratory Disease Outbreak is Unknown
Yesterday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) proclaimed to residents of the Commonwealth that it has no idea what is causing the outbreak of respiratory illness that has affected more than 2,000 people and killed 47 throughout the country.The proclamation came on a day when the Public Health Council voted to rescind the emergency order that banned the sale of all e-cigarettes in the state.According to anarticle inBoston Magazine, the Department of Public Health told reporters:" We don ’t understand what is causing these illnesses. From a public health point of view, we cannot recommend that anybody use ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 12, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Outbreak of Salmonella Poisoning from Contaminated Vegetables in Massachusetts But DPH Refuses to Release Data on Which Products are Involved and Where They Were Purchased
Despite an outbreak of vegetable-associated Salmonella poisoning linked to products sold at Massachusetts restaurants that has affected 90 Massachusetts residents and resulted in three deaths, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is refusing to release any information on the restaurants at which the patients ate or the exact products they consumed. The Department has revealed only that the outbreak is associated with " vegetable products " and that some of the patients reported having eaten vegetables at restaurants in the Commonwealth.The Department of Public Health is not even telling the restaurant owners thems...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 9, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

American Lung Association's Lies About E-Cigarettes are Dangerous and Irresponsible
Earlier this week, I revealed that, ironically, in a campaign attacking e-cigarette companies for lying to the public, the American Heart Association was itselflying to the public by asserting that e-cigarettes cannot help smokers quit.Today I reveal that, not to be outdone, the American Lung Association is lying even more blatantly to the public and in a way that is not only irresponsible but dangerous for the public ' s health.In apress release issued yesterday, the American Lung Association made the following claims:Cigarette smoking is no more hazardous than using e-cigarettes.E-cigarettes cannot help smokers quit.If y...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 5, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Massachusetts State Health Department is Completely Irresponsible in Hiding the Cause of Vaping-Associated Respiratory Illness
The Department of Public Health ' s Silence is Putting the Lives of the State ' s Youth at RiskI was startled this morning to read what the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is currentlytelling the public about the vaping-associated respiratory illness outbreak that has affected more than 2,000 people and resulted in 47 deaths. This information appears on the emergency web page that the Department has created , entitled " Vaping Public Health Emergency. "There are three critical pieces of information provided regarding the outbreak. First, here is what DPH is currently saying about the cause of the outbr...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 2, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

New York City: Where You Can Get Cigarettes at Every Corner Store But There's Not an E-Cigarette to Be Found
The New York City Council yesterday passed a law that bans the sale of all e-cigarettes, with the sole exception of tobacco-flavored ones, but allows cigarettes - including menthol-flavored brands - to continue to be sold at any gas station, convenience store, or other retail store in the city.On the heels of the New York City ban, the governor of Massachusetts today signed a law that bans the sale of all e-cigarettes in the state, with the sole exception of tobacco-flavored ones, but allows cigarettes to continue to be sold at any gas station, convenience store, or other retail store in the state.There is no public health...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 27, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

More Evidence that Vitamin E Acetate Oil, Not E-Cigarettes, Is the Cause of the Respiratory Disease Outbreak
This study not only provides very strong evidence that vitamin E acetate oil, rather than e-cigarettes, is the cause of the outbreak, but it also helps to explain why approximately 10% of patients are not reporting the use of THC-containing products. For one, some of the patients are apparently using CBD products that may contain vitamin E acetate oil. Second, there is clearly substantial under-reporting occurring. Patients who reported using nicotine-containing liquids exclusively have nevertheless tested positive for THC and/or vitamin E acetate oil. Third, there is tremendous product multi-use occurring, so it is not cl...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 27, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Why E-Cigarette Flavor Bans are Misguided: The Flavor's Not the Problem, It's the Nicotine Salts
The obsession of policy makers, politicians, and health groups on banning flavored e-cigarettes as a solution to the youth vaping epidemic is misguided and is detracting attention from the real issue: the use of nicotine salts that have greatly increased the addiction potential of e-cigarettes.Prior to the introduction of JUUL, three-fourths (74%) of nonsmoking youth e-cigarette users reported using e-cigarettes no more than about once a week and only 4% usedthem every day, a sure sign of addiction. But by 2018, 12% of nonsmoking youth used e-cigarettes every day, a tripling of the percentage of youth e-cigarette users who...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 26, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Oregon State Health Department Claims that Nicotine-Based E-Cigarettes are Causing Respiratory Disease Outbreak
In anop-ed piece published yesterday in theOregonian, the Oregon state health department claims that a substantial proportion of cases of the vaping-associated respiratory illness outbreak are caused not by THC/CBD vaping, but by nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes. The piece claims that: " we can say the hospitalizations and deaths are not exclusively attributable to cannabis use. "This is very different from claiming that wedo not yet know definitively whether some nicotine-containing e-liquids are causing the illness. Instead, the statement claims that wedo knowthat many casesare being caused by electronic cigaret...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 25, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Massive Irony: American Heart Association is Lying to the Public in a Campaign Attacking E-Cigarette Companies for Lying
The American Heart Association has unveiled a newcampaign which uses the hashtag #QuitLying and the website quitlying.org. The campaign is directed against " Big Vape " and it attacks e-cigarette companies for lying to the public. Among the lies that the American Heart Association claims e-cigarette companies are making are:(1) that vaping is different than smoking; and(2) that e-cigarettes can help smokers to quit smoking.They claim that the lying on the part of e-cigarette companies is " leading more people to smoking " and has " landed hundreds of e-cigarette users in hospitals. "The Rest of the StoryIn a massive ironic...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 24, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

My Testimony Today Regarding the Massachusetts Emergency Ban on the Sale of Electronic Cigarettes
Testimony of Michael Siegel, MD, MPHProfessor, Boston University School of Public HealthNovember 22, 2019The Department of Public Health justified its emergency order by arguing that removing vaping products from the market would protect the public – and especially youth – from the vaping-associated respiratory disease outbreak that has now affected more than 2,000 people and caused 47 deaths.However, unbeknownst to many, this emergency order wasnot successfulin removing all vaping products from the market. In fact, the Department ’s emergency order exempted – and therefore failed to remove from the market - a larg...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 22, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs