In Friday’s Dispatch, we reported that the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) called for a ban on menthol cigarettes, but the committee didn’t actually go quite that far. The TPSAC report, without making any specific recommendations to ban or restrict the flavoring, simply stated that removing menthol cigarettes from the market would, in their opinion, benefit public health.
Harm Reduction
The Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) issued a draft report earlier today advocating a ban on menthol cigarettes. Their statement said, “removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit the public health.” This was based on studies which have indicated a higher rate of smoking-related diseases among African-Americans, who overwhelmingly prefer menthol cigarettes. As ACSH has detailed in its own menthol report, which ACSH's Dr.
Though the rate of smoking among U.S. adults has remained relatively stagnant over the past few years — hovering around 20 percent as reported by the CDC in September — there is still some good news to be had. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association uses two large, population-based surveys comprising a total of 1,662,353 respondents to determine if smokers are smoking fewer cigarettes. In 1965, 22.9 percent of Americans were high-intensity smokers, meaning they smoked at least a pack a day. But by 2007, that number fell to only 7.2 percent.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is fuming over the latest animation flick Rango, featuring the voice of Johnny Depp as a desert town chameleon, stating that the depiction of smoking in the PG-rated movie will encourage younger audiences to think the habit is appealing. Multiple characters, including Rango’s two sidekicks, a toad and fox, use cigars and a long cigarette holder in the film, while Rango himself swallows a cigar and breathes fire in the face of a villain during one scene.
ACSH would like to issue a correction to yesterday’s Dispatch item regarding the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) draft report, which noted the incidence of mentholated cigarette smoking among American teens.
While we still don’t know the true extent of the radiation threat from the Japanese nuclear reactors damaged during the historically unprecedented earthquake and tsunami, there is one thing we do know — U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin needs a refresher course in medicine. When asked by a reporter about the sudden increase in purchases of potassium iodide (KI) pills in the U.S. due to fears of radiation spreading to the California coast, Dr. Benjamin said this was not an overreaction and supported the idea.
Haters of the e-cigarette are quick to chastise actress Kathryn Heigl for continuing to vape nine months after switching from traditional cigarettes. A Daily Mail article, which chooses to nickname the nicotine delivery device a “smokestick,” voices the views of the strongest opponents of harm reduction with a tone that implies “see, e-cigarettes are so addictive, Ms. Heigl can’t quit them, either.” ACSH’s response: Why criticize her?
While speaking to over 30 University of North Carolina Wilmington students, Paul Turner Jr., director of the N.C. Spit Tobacco Education Program and former director of the CDC’s oral health division, haphazardly groups various smokeless nicotine products, including dip, snuff and snus, into one category — harmful to human health — despite each having its own risk profile.
The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) believes mentholated cigarettes do not pose a greater health threat than unflavored cigarettes. The U.S. Draft Report on mentholated cigarettes, released yesterday, echoes very closely ACSH’s own menthol paper, released one year ago, which ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross presented to TPSAC last year.
Two of the largest manufacturers of mentholated cigarettes initiated a lawsuit against the FDA Friday to prevent the consideration of an upcoming FDA panel report recommending expanding the current flavored cigarette ban to include menthol varieties. Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds — makers of the Newport and Kool cigarette brands, respectively — argue that three members of the advisory panel have “severe financial and appearance conflicts of interest and associated biases,” including receipt of funding for research or consultation work from manufacturers of smoking-cessation products.
Yesterday brought word from two continents of extraordinary government action — and absurd lies — regarding tobacco.In the U.S., Judge Gladys Kessler announced a decision requiring tobacco companies to run advertisements and put notices on their product packages acknowledging that they deliberately misled the public about the health effects of so-called light cigarettes and the addictiveness of nicotine.
If two Senators have their way, baseball fans will no longer have to watch their favorite ball players spit in the dugout or field — at least not tobacco, that is. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) want the Major Leagues to ban smokeless tobacco based on a survey showing that the use of smokeless tobacco among high school boys has increased by 36 percent since 2003. "We now know conclusively that smokeless tobacco endangers the health of baseball players who use it, but it also affects millions of young people who watch baseball," the Senators wrote to baseball commissioner Bud Selig earlier this week. While ACSH's Dr.