Commentary
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 27 April 2014
Reducing the toll of death and disease from tobacco – tobacco harm reduction and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) We are writing in advance of important negotiations on tobacco policy later in the year at the FCTC Sixth Conference of the Parties. The work of WHO and the FCTC remains vital in reducing the intolerable toll of cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illnesses caused by tobacco use. As WHO has stated, up to one billion preventable tobacco‐related premature deaths are possible in the 21st Century.[...]
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- Category: Neil Mckeganey
Neil McKeganey | 13 May 2014
IF YOU WANTED TO SUM UP THE CURRENT ADVICE ON TOBACCO CONTROL it would go something along the lines of tobacco plain packaging is good, so let's move ahead with it as soon as possible, e-cigarettes are bad so let's surround their use with increasingly restrictive controls. The Welsh Government is currently considering banning the use of e- cigarettes in enclosed public spaces, echoing the similar ban on smoking instituted in the UK in 2007.
While the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces made sense given the evidence of the health harms associated with second hand smoke, the proposed ban on e-cigarettes is based on little more than the largely undocumented fear that e- cigarettes might 're-normalise smoking', particularly among young people.
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- Category: Konstantinos Farsalinos
Konstantinos Farsalinos | 9 May 2014
A study to be published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research was featured in the New York Times and has generated a lot of interest. The article mentioned that e-cigarette vapor can be the source of carcinogens, depending on the heating process. The article is true and expected. We know that thermal degradation can lead to the release of toxic chemicals. And we know that formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein have been found in vapor. There is nothing new to it. However, this study found that levels may approach those present in tobacco cigarettes. Of course there are some inaccuracies in the NYT article, such as that nicotine gets overheated (which means nothing).
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 28 April 2014
The US Food and Drug Administration has published the long awaited proposed ‘deeming’ regulations for e-cigarettes. The major points are that products will need to be registered with the FDA and report product and ingredient listings; that new products can only be marketed after review by the FDA, that companies can only make a claim for reduced risk if the FDA confirms this on the basis of scientific evidence and that the sale of the product will benefit public health. There will be minimum age requirements and restrictions on sales to youth, and a health warning requirement. The FDA has launched a consultation process, with a deadline of July 9th.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 28 April 2014
Data released today (28th April) show over 2 million people in Britain now regularly use electronic cigarettes. This is a threefold rise in just two years: from an estimated 700,000 users in 2012 to around 2.1 million in 2014.
Figures come from a survey commissioned by ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) England’s anti-smoking charity.
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- Category: Joe Gitchell
Joe Gitchell | 24 April 2014
The place of “tobacco harm reduction” in the panoply of public health responses to the cigarette smoking epidemic has a long and generally discouraging history (e.g., filters, “low-tar”, “heat not burn”), but given the substantial and increasing toll from cigarette smoking, and the apparent inability of established policies and programs to arrest these trends, the debate about harm reduction will continue. Below I attempt to inventory, in my mind, the primary foundations of why many in the tobacco control community are so skeptical and concerned about the increasing adoption of electronic cigarettes. I claim no monopoly on insight in to this question and certainly welcome the input and comments from others.
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- Category: Gerry Stimson
Gerry Stimson 29 | March 2014
The fast moving world of e-cigarettes means that it is hard to track the dynamics of this changing scene. There is a lack of good information on the size of the vaping population, trends in the sales of e-cigarettes, and what devices vapers are using. Academic and survey research on the size and characteristics of the vaping population is still minimal, and a picture of what is happening needs to be pieced together from various sources of information including sales and market data.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 24 March 2013
Shaping the discussions at the Global Forum on Nicotine will be presentations from the world’s leading nicotine scientists, researchers and policy analysts.
Conference background
The science and understanding of nicotine is rapidly changing. The arrival of new nicotine delivery systems, along with other lower risk alternatives to smoking, is forcing rapid changes in nicotine science, public understanding, and the regulatory landscape.
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- Category: Matt Ridley
Nicotine Science & Policy | 5 March 2013
Readers of NSP will be well aware that electronic cigarettes are a major disruption for the tobacco industry, governments and regulators, public health and tobacco control organisations, consumers, and the public view of nicotine. Writing in The Times Matt Ridley outlines the risks to individual and public health from excessive regulation that threatens to ‘throttle’ the electronic cigarette industry. Viscount Matt Ridley is one of the few people to have spoken on electronic cigarettes in the UK House of Lords, which we published here.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 23 February 2013
The last few years has seen rapid transformations in the science and understanding of nicotine. The arrival of new nicotine delivery systems, along with other lower risk alternatives to smoking such as snus, is leading to changes in nicotine science, public understanding, and the regulatory landscape. This impacts upon on a wide range of stakeholders.