Read articles from United States of America

September 08, 2022 by filtermag.org

Four highly regarded tobacco control scholars are calling for a policy agenda on e-cigarettes that balances curbing youth use with promoting vaping products as tools that can help adult smokers switch to safer nicotine alternatives. Their agenda—which consists of making e-cigarettes more easily and cheaply available than cigarettes, but also of reducing cigarettes’ nicotine content and banning a range of flavored vaping and tobacco products—is certain to draw criticism both from anti-nicotine zealots and tobacco harm reduction proponents.

September 07, 2022 by mauinow.com

Hawai‘i is expected to receive $6.8 million as its portion of a $438.5 million agreement in principle between JUUL Labs and 34 states and territories that resolves a two-year bipartisan investigation into the e-cigarette manufacturer’s marketing and sales practices.

The settlement also would force JUUL to comply with a series of strict terms severely limiting their marketing and sales practices, according to a press release from Hawaiʻi Attorney General Holly T. Shikada.

September 07, 2022 by medicalxpress.com

Now, with a new school year underway, educators and health experts are building on recent progress as they enter the latest round of the vaping fight.

Research into the health impact of electronic cigarettes is still unfolding, but ill effects are beginning to be revealed.

There's evidence that teens who vape now may smoke later—a troubling finding that follows decades of significant progress in reducing cigarette smoking among youths. A scientific statement by the American Heart Association reported that people who use e-cigarettes may face increased risk of asthma. [...]

September 07, 2022 by nytimes.com

Juul Labs, fighting for its survival in the United States, on Tuesday tentatively agreed to pay $438.5 million to settle an investigation by nearly three dozen states over marketing and sales practices that they contend set off the nation’s teenage vaping crisis.

The company said that it did not acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement, but that it was trying to “resolve issues from the past” while awaiting a decision by the Food and Drug Administration over whether it would be permitted to continue to sell its products. Juul has been trying to reposition itself as a seller of vaping products that could help adults quit smoking traditional cigarettes, [...]

September 02, 2022 by ctpublic.org

A recent study from the Yale School of Public Health suggests that higher taxes on e-cigarettes could drive younger vapers to turn to traditional cigarettes. Connecticut has a $4.35 tax on a pack of cigarettes – among the highest nationally – and a 10 percent wholesale tax on e-cigarettes for an open tank.

“We would want to tax e-cigarettes lower to incentivize people using a more lethal product, cigarettes, to reduce their risk,” said Michael Pesko, a health economist at George State University, [...] But mental health experts caution that it’s important to understand and address the factors that lead young people to substance use.

September 02, 2022 by mdpi.com

This study examines the use of JUUL vs. other e-cigarette brands among U.S. youth (12–17 years), young adult (18–24 years), and adult (25 years and above) e-cigarette users. Data were from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study Wave 5 survey (2019). The study population was past 30-day e-cigarette users who knew the brand of e-cigarettes they usually/last used (N = 2569). JUUL use was reported by 65.2% of youth, 60.7% of young adult, and 25.6% of adult e-cigarette users in our study sample. [...]

September 01, 2022 by cbsnews.com

For the first time on record, regular cannabis usage has surpassed cigarette use in the U.S., according to a new Gallup poll. Marijuana use has increased dramatically over the past half-century and is currently the highest Gallup has ever recorded.

Of the American adults who participated in the poll, around 16% said they currently smoke marijuana, while nearly half said they have tried it at some point in their lifetime. When the question was first asked in 1969, only 4% of respondents said they had tried it.

August 31, 2022 by jpost.com

Cereal and milk or toast with avocado sounds like perfect breakfast pairs but for many people, their favorite combo is coffee with a cigarette. Why? 

A study from the University of Florida in Gainesville may finally have an answer.

Researchers found that certain chemical compounds in roasted coffee beans may help ease the effects of morning nicotine cravings. The study authors were able to identify two coffee compounds that appear to directly affect highly sensitive nicotine receptors in the brain. For smokers, these receptors are often more sensitive after a long night without nicotine.

August 31, 2022 by healthday.com

It might seem incongruous, but new research suggests that teens who engage in more physical activity may vape more frequently than their less active peers.

In the study, high schoolers who reported being physically active had a higher risk of using vaping products than their peers who were active just one day a week or less. When compared to their less active peers, teens who reported engaging in at least 60 minutes of physical activity four to five days per week were 23% more likely to use a vaping product. Teenagers were 11% more likely to use such products if they reported being active two to three days per week.

August 30, 2022 by virginiabusiness.com

Henrico County’s Altria Group Inc. advertises on its website that it is “moving beyond smoking,” although the owner of Philip Morris USA still is one of the world’s largest producers of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Now the 6,000-employee, $26 billion corporation may have to move beyond smoking more quickly than it anticipated.

As part of the Biden administration’s cancer moonshot initiative, which aims to cut U.S. cancer deaths by 50% during the next 25 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it plans to limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes “to minimally addictive or nonaddictive levels.” [...]