Harm Reduction

ACSH staffers were (almost) speechless when we found out that the New Jersey State Senate voted unanimously to restrict the use of e-cigarettes as though they were equivalent to standard, life-threatening cigarettes.

Despite the fact that revenues from tobacco taxes and the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement among forty-six states and cigarette makers are at record highs, many states have cut funding for tobacco prevention programs by over 15 percent in the past

A report by the World Health Organization reveals that tobacco use kills 5 million people worldwide each year. The WHO attributes 600,000 of those deaths to exposure to secondhand smoke.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that the rate of smokers twelve to seventeen years old using menthol cigarettes rose to 48 percent in 2008 from 44 percent in 2004.

The National Cancer Institute reports that one- and two-year survival rates for patients with advanced lung cancer have increased slightly over the past twenty years.

ACSH's friend and co-author of our 2006 report on tobacco harm reduction Bill Godshall passed along a study published in the Annals of Oncology about cancer rates in Europe.

This Thursday, November 19th, marks the 33rd "Great American Smokeout," in which smokers are encouraged to quit, even if only for one day. The goal is to make that Day One in the life of a smoker as a successful ex-smoker.

Under the tobacco regulation bill recently passed by Congress, flavoring in cigarettes will be banned to diminish the attraction of smoking to youth smokers, with the exception of menthol.

Duff Wilson reports in today s New York Times that advertising restrictions imposed on tobacco companies by the latest FDA regulation law are likely to be challenged as infringements on free speech.

The moment that ACSH staffers have been dreading has finally arrived. The U.S. Senate approved the bill granting regulatory authority of tobacco to the FDA.