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- Category: August 2018
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday took strong exception to Centre’s indecision in coming up with regulatory measures on manufacture, import, sale and any kind of trade in e-cigarettes in the country. A Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao asked the Centre to indicate in an affidavit a time frame within which the regulatory measures will be brought into place and ‘enforced in letter and spirit’.
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- Category: August 2018
The popularity of electronic cigarettes continues to grow worldwide, as many people view them as a safer alternative to smoking. But the long-term effects of e-cigarette usage, commonly called "vaping," are unknown. Today, researchers report that vaping may modify the genetic material, or DNA, in the oral cells of users, which could increase their cancer risk. [...] "E-cigarettes are a popular trend, but the long-term health effects are unknown," says Romel Dator, Ph.D., who is presenting the work at the meeting.
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- Category: August 2018
Israel on Tuesday outlawed the import and sale of e-cigarettes made by Silicon Valley startup Juul Labs, citing public health concerns given their nicotine content. A statement by Israel's Health Ministry said the Juul device was banned because it contains nicotine at a concentration higher than 20 milligrams per milliliter and poses "a grave risk to public health."
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- Category: August 2018
A cabinet minister who developed lung cancer has expressed concern about the long-term effects of vaping after an influential report recommended relaxing restrictions on e-cigarettes.
James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, who has never smoked but had surgery this year to remove a third of his lung, said he wanted “to be cautious about what the long-term impacts of this are and how . . . it is less harmful, but it is not necessarily harmless”.
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- Category: August 2018
Gerry Stimson
Emeritus professor, Imperial College, London
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- Category: August 2018
From Abraham to the Aztecs, ancient cultures exacted human sacrifices to appease the gods – that is, to soothe their own anxieties and to placate false beliefs. Today, we have our own version of this, as evidenced by the overdose crisis sweeping North America. According to a recent Public Health Agency of Canada report, there were roughly 4,000 opioid-related fatalities in Canada in 2017, a nearly 50-per-cent increase from the previous year. This epidemic has “has affected every part of the country" [...]
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- Category: August 2018
The health ministry on Monday issued new images for the pictorial warning on packs of cigarette and other tobacco products
The new pictures, which will be used with effect from September 1, will have to be accompanied with a quitline number. According to a health ministry order, all packs of tobacco products must have "tobacco causes cancer" and "tobacco causes painful death" written in white on a red background, [...]
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- Category: August 2018
In recent years, the popularity of vaping has grown tremendously, and many smokers are switching to vaping over traditional cigarettes. While vaping and smoking have some similarities, they also have key differences. Fewer chemicals are involved in vaping than smoking, and while smoking always contains nicotine, you can vape without nicotine. While vaping only requires battery usage, smoking requires a lighter. Vaping offers many unique flavors to users while smoking has a limited variety of choices. On average, the cost of smoking is substantially higher than the cost of vaping. If you are considering smoking or vaping, weigh your options before making a decision.
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- Category: August 2018
A study [...] reports that the method federal regulators use to monitor illegal underage tobacco sales fails to detect most stores that sometimes sell cigarettes to adolescents. The study, co-authored by several leading researchers of the topic, found that the federal method of a single purchase attempt by an undercover minor identified only one-third of the violators that were found when the same stores were visited six times over a period of weeks.
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- Category: August 2018
In a surprising move, the Philippines House of Representatives is urging that vaping be included in the country’s tobacco control strategy. The legislative body issued a resolution asking the health department to promote tobacco harm reduction. The resolution, authored by Reps. Anthony Bravo and Jose Tejada, references the experience in the U.K., where public health authorities have promoted vaping as a safer alternative for cigarette smokers. According to the Manila Standard, the lawmakers specifically cite the landmark reports from Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians. A resolution is not law or even binding on the regulators. It is a recommendation by the legislature that the department of health regulate vapes without banning them.
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- Category: August 2018
Smoking remains an enormous public health problem in the U.S. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in this country. According to some studies, more than half of longtime smokers will die from smoking-related complications. David Abrams, a professor at New York University’s College of Global Public Health, estimates that 1,300 people die from smoking every day. The life expectancy of a cigarette smoker is said to be a decade lessthan someone who has never smoked
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- Category: August 2018
Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies: “The harsh truth is that smoking kills, and smokers who switch completely to electronic cigarettes are likely substantially to reduce the likelihood of premature death and disability”. Seeing more studies of vaping is great, we welcome research. But we need a balanced debate on the relative risk of e-cigarettes in comparison to combustible cigarettes, and once again, since bad news attracts more clicks and sells more papers, a very unhealthy bias has appeared in every major news item we have read. It is simply not reflective of the findings of the report.
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- Category: August 2018
[...] A research team led by Xuemie Ji, [...] helped solve this central problem. The team identified two main pathways involving the mechanism by which the chromosome 15q25.1 locus influences lung cancer risk. The first pathway is an interaction pathway in the nervous system that is implicated in nicotine dependence. The other pathway can control key components in many biological processes, such as transport of nutrients and ions, and the human immune system.
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- Category: August 2018
Vaping is much less harmful than normal cigarettes and e-cigarettes should be made available on prescription to help more people quit smoking. George Butterworth, from Cancer Research UK, said any changes to current e-cigarette regulations "should be aimed at helping smokers to quit whilst preventing young people from starting to use e-cigarettes". Professor Linda Bauld, professor of health policy at the University of Stirling, said: "This report is a welcome and evidence-based respite from all the scare stories we see about vaping.
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- Category: August 2018
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the world and encompasses a variety of products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Combustible cigarettes remain the most common tobacco product used by U.S. adults, but studies have shown no level of cigarette consumption is safe. A new review [...] examines policies to achieve complete cigarette abstinence as part of efforts to reduce the risk of heart disease.
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- Category: August 2018
The Science and Technology Committee publishes its Report, E-cigarettes. The Report reviews the current evidence base on the harmfulness of e-cigarettes compared to conventional cigarettes and looks at the current policies on e-cigarettes, including in NHS mental health units and in prisons. The Committee concludes that e-cigarettes should not be treated in the same way as conventional cigarettes. E-cigarettes, estimated as 95% less harmful than conventional cigarettes, are too often being overlooked as a stop smoking tool by the NHS. Regulations should be relaxed relating to e-cigarettes’ licensing, prescribing and advertising of their health benefits. Their level of taxation and use in public places must be reconsidered. Around 2.9 million people in the UK are currently using e-cigarettes, and it has been estimated that about 470,000 people are using them as an aid to stop smoking—and tens of thousands are using them to successfully quit smoking each year.
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- Category: August 2018
Technological advances touch every aspect of our lives, often in ways we rarely think about. Today, we live longer, healthier, and better lives because of our access to innovative products that were unimaginable in the recent past.
That’s why it’s critical for regulators to make timely and common-sense decisions. Yet excessive risk-aversion is endemic at federal agencies. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the worst offenders. [...]
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- Category: August 2018
Could the 28-year ban on snus be overturned? Professor Riccardo Polosa, a smoking researcher at the University of Catania, gave oral evidence to the Select Committee. He said 'there is a strong consensus among the scientific community that the ban on snus is entirely disproportionate. 'Without a shadow of a doubt snus is vastly safer than smoking.' Professor Gerry Stimson, of the New Nicotine Alliance charity, said: 'This report is a milestone for harm reduction.' He added that 'it is also the beginning of the end for the grotesque mistake of banning snus'.
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- Category: August 2018
Are e-cigarettes a good way of getting people to give up smoking or just another way of feeding people’s tobacco addiction? Darren Dodd discusses different attitudes towards e-cigarettes and vaping in the US and Europe with the FT’s Camilla Hodgson and Linda Bauld, an expert in cancer prevention and tobacco control.
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- Category: August 2018
Despite the scientifically established harmful health effects of smoking, millions of people around the world still do it. Because of this, many large companies are looking for healthier ways to deliver active ingredients from tobacco and cannabis to people with a smoking habit. More than a billion people around the world smoke tobacco or cannabis, leading to 6 million deaths a year. Companies in the tobacco and cannabis sectors are looking for alternative delivery systems. Some alternatives may be more effective - and healthier - than smoking.