Read articles from North America

September 15, 2023 by news-medical.net

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.

September 13, 2023 by townhall.com

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.

September 13, 2023 by filtermag.org

September is Suicide Prevention Month. While middle-aged and older people are heavily impacted, suicide is the second leading leading cause of death for people aged 10-24 in the United States. Suicide rates for this age group increased by 52 percent from 2000-2021. In the US, there are 3,703 suicide attempts by kids in grades 9-12 per day. Of youth who die from suicide, 60 percent were living with depression. Youth who struggle in school, particularly, are facing increased vulnerability.

September 08, 2023 by filtermag.org

Dr. Brian King, director for the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), acknowledged a major public health failure in recent commentary in the journal Addiction: Many adults who smoke are unaware of the relative safety of nicotine vapes and other tobacco harm reduction options compared with combustible cigarettes. What he conspicuously failed to acknowledge was his own agency’s role in perpetuating misperceptions that cost lives.

September 08, 2023 by ajmc.com

Adolescents and young adults who used cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the previous 7 days had a higher likelihood of experiencing severe and frequent ocular symptoms, according to a study published in JAMA Ophthalmology. As of 2014, e-cigarettes are the most common tobacco product among youth in the United States. Ocular damage and increased risk of eye disease have been found in studies that have evaluated the outcomes of tobacco use. The present study aimed to report the “magnitude of ocular symptoms reported by adolescents and young adults using e-cigarettes only, cigarettes only, and both products.”

September 08, 2023 by planetofthevapes.co.uk

A new study conducted by a research team at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Centre in New York has looked at the impact of flavour bans in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Centre for Tobacco Products (CTP) has been waging a war on e-liquid flavours since it published a document about them in 2020. The researchers discovered that restricting the availability of flavours has been a complete failure. “In the US in 2019, more than 5 million youth were using e-cigarettes, including nearly 1 million using e-cigarettes every day,” the authors write.

September 06, 2023 by reason.com

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should abandon any efforts to inform the public that vaping is safer than smoking, says the American Lung Association (ALA). Numerous public surveys show a consistent, widespread misperception that vaping nicotine is just as or more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. The problem is so extensive that correcting these false beliefs forms part of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) 5-year strategic plan. 

September 05, 2023 by planetofthevapes.co.uk

The largest ever American vape study, conducted by a team at the MUSC Hollings Cancer Centre, has demonstrated the value of ecigs as a smoking cessation aid. The study was conducted due to the debate raging on that side of the Atlantic as to whether vapes should be considered for use as part of smoking cessation programmes. “E-cigarettes contain harmful chemicals, which has led many public health advocates to shun them. But they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, which can cause a dozen types of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” says the MUSC Hollings Cancer Centre.

September 04, 2023 by rstreet.org

On August 15, Brian King, Director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), acknowledged that there are opportunities for the CTP to educate consumers about the relative risks of tobacco products. By communicating that some tobacco products carry less risk with them than traditional cigarettes—such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), heated tobacco products and oral tobacco products—the burden of smoking-related death and disease could be significantly impacted. [...]

August 30, 2023 by medium.com

In the early 20th century, Americans demonized alcohol. In 1920, they codified that demonization in the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting alcohol. During the roaring ’20s, in American homes and speakeasies all over the land, Americans thumbed their noses at that demonization. As did bootleggers, smugglers and organized crime bosses. In 1933, Americans decided to de-demonize alcohol with the 21st Amendment, making this psychoactive drug — alcohol — legal again.