Commentary
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- Category: Lars Ramström
Lars M. Ramström | 15 February 2014
The ‘WHO Global Report: Mortality Attributable to Tobacco’ has provided estimates of death rates specifically attributable to tobacco. These estimates directly represent the size of each country’s health burden of tobacco, overall and with respect to the different diseases. The current study has extracted data for all European Union Member States and made inter-country comparisons for different age groups and diseases. In these comparisons men in Sweden stand out by exhibiting lower death rates attributable to tobacco than men in any other EU country.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Grzegorz Krol | 7 February 2014
New research presented by Jamie Brown and colleagues at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco conference, 20th Annual Meeting, held in Seattle on Saturday, February 8, 2014 shows that smokers wishing to quit who used electronic-cigarettes had best outcomes.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 3 February 2013
On January 16, 2014, a group of eminent scientists in the field of tobacco and e-cigarettes sent a letter to the EU Commission, directing their attention to a number of scientific errors in the proposed Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). We publish here further correspondence between the Commission and the signatories to the letter. The Deputy Director General for Consumers and Health responded to the criticisms with the following letter on January 27th 2014:
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- Category: Gerry Stimson
Gerry Stimson and Paddy Costall | 19 January 2014
We struggle to understand why so many public health colleagues are anti-pathetic to electronic cigarettes. The uptake of e-cigarettes has been a consumer-led public health revolution. At no cost to the NHS, and without government or public health support and promotion, thousands of people have found that e-cigarettes help them switch from smoking. Using e-cigarettes is a classic harm reduction approach – a safer product and delivery device for those who do not want to give up nicotine. It fits two public health principles – the first is to reduce harms to populations and the second is to engage and work with populations in their endeavour to lead healthier lives.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 17 January 2014
On January 16, 2014, a group of eminent scientists in the field of tobacco and e-cigarettes sent the following letter to the EU Commission, directing their attention to a number of scientific errors in the proposed Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Their concerns also extend to the misinterpretations and misuse of some data from individual pieces of research.
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- Category: Jacques le Houezec
Jacques le Houezec | 12 January 2014
Nicotine is the major alkaloid found in tobacco, but it can be found in lower concentrations in plants of the same family, potatoes, tomatoes or eggplants. Humans have always been curious to find plants that can have pleasurable or medicinal effects. Tobacco has been used in South America from pre-Colombian times to the present for magico-religious, medicinal and recreational purposes.
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- Category: Scott Balin
Scott D. Ballin | 5 January 2014
For most, it is obvious that the tobacco and nicotine environment is changing and changing rapidly. The 'tobacco wars' as we traditionally fought them for the last 40 years still exist in some form but the issues, challenges and more importantly opportunities to develop a more comprehensive and rational approach to the regulation of all tobacco, nicotine and alternative products is at our doorstep.
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- Category: Matt Ridley
Matt Ridley | 28 December 2013
E-cigarettes are mainly used to quit smoking - don't stifle them. My recent speech in the House of Lords on the dangers of too much regulatory precaution over electronic cigarettes has sparked a huge amount of interest among "vapers". I am reprinting the speech here as a blog.
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- Category: Nicotine Science & Policy
Nicotine Science & Policy | 28 December 2013
In the wake of all the debates about new nicotine products and regulation in 2013, NSP asked leading commentators to let us have short statements on their hopes and aspirations for policy and practice in the coming year. Below are some of the responses we received.
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- Category: Clive Bates
Clive Bates | 20 December 2013