Read articles from United States of America

January 03, 2023 by silive.com

E-cigarette users searching for a New Year’s resolution should look no further than kicking the habit, officials said.

The New York State Health Department said e-cigarette use remains stubbornly-high, especially among young adults from ages 18 to 24, even as traditional tobacco use has been declining for decades.

“I encourage New Yorkers who use e-cigarettes to ring in the New Year by making a resolution to quit using e-cigarettes and other vaping devices, which contain highly addictive nicotine, in order to prevent long-term harm to people’s health,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a release.

January 03, 2023 by filtermag.org

United States tobacco control did not have an easy 2022. So much turmoil has come and gone this past year that even the most dedicated harm reductionists and critics struggled to keep up at one point or another, as separate events blurred into one big pile of dysfunction.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it’s moving toward a federal menthol cigarette ban, much to the chagrin of social justice advocates. Congress granted the FDA the power to regulate synthetic nicotine, to which many small- and medium-sized vape manufacturers had switched in the hope of keeping their products on the market.

December 22, 2022 by cnn.com

An independent panel of experts says its review of the US Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco program found numerous wide-ranging problems that hinder its ability to regulate the industry and reduce tobacco-related disease and death.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf requested the review in July, anticipating the complex issues that will come with an ever-growing number of tobacco products. The experts were asked to take a closer look at the agency’s regulatory process and agency operations, as well as how it handles application reviews, compliance and enforcement actions, and communication with stakeholders and the public. The panel did not review the FDA’s tobacco policy itself.

December 21, 2022 by filtermag.org

On December 19, the Reagan-Udall Foundation, an independent nonprofit tasked by Congress to help modernize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), released a commissioned report on the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). The expert panel—which mainly consisted of former agency higher-ups—concluded that the CTP has to pivot from “a reactive mode to proactive mode.” It identified the lack of a coherent plan at the center charged with authorizing or rejecting vaping products, and called for transparency at an agency long characterized by its absence. [...]

December 19, 2022 by nnalliance.org

As has been widely reported, new data published last week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals that the smoking rate for over 18s in the UK in 2021 declined to a record low of 13.3%. The ONS described the drop in smoking numbers since the previous year’s rate of 14.0% as statistically significant and concluded that vaping had played “a major role” in the reduction. This is great news at the end of a difficult year for many, but also (...)

December 19, 2022 by medicalxpress.com

Despite California's success in reducing tobacco use, a new study published today in JAMA Network Open demonstrates the continued and significant burden tobacco inflicts on people with cancer. "This is almost double what was previously estimated in a study that looked at 2014 data," said California Cancer Registry researcher Frances Maguire, who is the lead author of the study.

December 16, 2022 by reason.com

It has long been clear that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is leery of approving nicotine vaping products in flavors other than tobacco because the agency worries that they appeal to teenagers. Two recently disclosed FDA memos not only confirm that impression; they indicate that the agency is determined to ban all other flavors, no matter how popular they are among former smokers and no matter what evidence a manufacturer presents in favor of a particular product.

December 16, 2022 by filtermag.org

In a new paper, a group of leading tobacco control experts urge the US surgeon general and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to correct widespread misinformation surrounding nicotine vapes.

The article, which appears in Addiction, an esteemed peer-reviewed scientific journal, notes that the CDC does not have a clear definition of an e-cigarette. It suggests that the center adopt “e-cigarettes are electronic devices that transform a liquid containing nicotine into aerosol that is inhaled via a mouthpiece.”

December 15, 2022 by filtermag.org

New evidence provides the clearest signal yet that the Food and Drug Administration is opposed categorically to authorizing non-tobacco flavored vapes—something indicated by reams of rejections under its premarket tobacco product applications (PMTA) process, but never explicitly stated.

Two memos reviewed by Filter indicate that the office of Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), intervened to push back against the CTP Office of Science’s recommendation to authorize menthol vaping products for the first time. [...]

December 15, 2022 by journalnow.com