Read articles from North America

Philip Morris International (PMI) has registered new lobbyists in at least 19 US states this year, and plans to add some in four more in the next two weeks, according to a review of public records and information provided by the company. The world’s biggest cigarette maker by market value is expanding its lobbying firepower as it prepares to launch its flagship IQOS heated tobacco device in a long-awaited entry to the US, where vaping already is an established alternative to smoking.

Lawmakers in the Bay State recently heard testimony on proposals in both the Massachusetts House and Senate which seek to address youth nicotine addiction by increasing the state excise taxes on cigars and cigarettes. While protecting youth from all age-restricted products is laudable, Massachusetts youth are reporting record lows in cigarette and cigar use. Rather than imposing draconian taxes that will disproportionately impact lower-income persons, and stoke fears of a youth vaping epidemic that doesn’t exist, lawmakers should utilize existing tobacco monies on programs to address youth use of tobacco and vapor products.

Now, at the moment when the FDA is finally preparing to tell the public the truth about nicotine vaping products, the American Lung Association is demanding the FDA to strike all mentions of ‘relative risk’ from its new 5-Year Strategic Plan and to abandon “the failed and flawed notions that adult smokers should switch to e-cigarettes.” Joining us today to talk through FDA’s track record on vaping misinformation and the ALA’s shocking demand is Guy Bentley the director of consumer freedom at Reason Foundation and author at Reason Magazine.

The US Food and Drug Administration needs to take a stronger stance against retailers that illegally sell tobacco products to children, according to a new report from the US Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG). In a report published Thursday, the OIG says that the FDA didn’t scrutinize repeat violators enough, and in some states, the agency may have been disproportionately focused on sellers in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The report also suggested that the FDA needs to do a better job overseeing online retailers and should work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to help crack down on online sales to kids.

Millions of Americans are being exposed to toxic secondhand smoke and have a byproduct of nicotine in their blood without even knowing it. That’s according to a new study published by University of Florida health researchers in the Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal. The findings suggest 56 million Americans are unknowingly and routinely exposed to toxic secondhand smoke. The researchers analyzed a survey of more than 13,000 adults and detected cotinine in the blood of 51% of people. Cotinine is an indicator that someone has been exposed to nicotine within a few days, primarily tobacco products. 

Just in time for the new school year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is not letting a good non-crisis go to waste. A series of videos published on Labor Day once again sound the alarm on youth vaping, urging educators—from coaches to principals to teachers—to talk to their students about it. The videos serve up a few morsels of truth with large helpings of fear-mongering and misinformation.

Almost everyone in America is now firmly convinced that nicotine vapes (“e-cigarettes”) have created a “whole new generation addicted to nicotine.” Click-bait media helpfully reminds the public almost daily. Is it true? The answers can be found in two surveys: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS; 1999–2022), and the US National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey (for years prior to 1999).

In the realm of legislative overreach, there are few things more emblematic than the Canadian government’s recent move to force tobacco companies to emblazon individual cigarettes with warning messages. While the intention to safeguard public health is admirable, this measure reeks of pointlessness and misdirection. In the grand scheme of tobacco control, this endeavour is akin to placing a band-aid on a leaking dam. More importantly, if this trend extends to Britain and impacts vapes, it risks undermining more effective deterrents while setting a dangerous precedent.

The risks of smoking during pregnancy for both maternal and fetal health are well documented, but only about half of pregnant people quit smoking on their own. To learn more about how e-cigarette or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) influences smoking cessation later in pregnancy, University at Buffalo researchers compared abstinence rates in the two groups. They found that those using e-cigarettes before pregnancy were more likely to abstain from smoking later in pregnancy.

Recently, more than 30 state, territory, and Washington D.C. attorneys general (AGs) penned a letter to the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging the agency to essentially eliminate the majority of e-cigarettes from the U.S. marketplace. Inauspiciously, these AGs are ignoring the massive declines in youth e-cigarette use and disregard why American youth are vaping and demanding a regulatory agency use limited funding to enforce draconian regulations and prohibitions. Rather than rely on federal regulatory agencies, these AGs ought to demand state lawmakers invest more of existing tobacco monies to combat youth e-cigarette use.