Read articles from United States of America

April 27, 2021 by filtermag.org

A new study published in The Lancet [...] suggests that smokers given higher-nicotine vaping products consume fewer dangerous carcinogens through continued smoking compared with their peers given lower-strength vapes. The study—funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—looked at how smokers’ use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) could help them cut back on cigarettes.

The participants, aged from 21 to 65, had smoked more than nine cigarettes per day for at least the past year and were not currently using ENDS. [...]

April 27, 2021 by upi.com

Hispanic and Black adolescents and teens are more likely to smoke marijuana using e-cigarettes than their White peers, an analysis published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics found.

More than one in four Hispanic youths in grades 6 through 12 reported using vaping devices to smoke marijuana in 2020, compared to 19% of Black students and 18% of White students, the data showed. "Marijuana use during adolescence is associated with decline in memory, attention and learning," the CDC researchers wrote.

"Evidence-based strategies to reduce marijuana use in e-cigarettes are important for protecting young people from these health risks," they said.

April 27, 2021 by tampabay.com

When I was growing up in New York in the 1970s, both of my parents were physicians and both of my parents smoked. I remember the ads as a child for “Joe Cool” and menthol cigarettes in popular magazines such as Ebony and Essence and on billboards everywhere in our community. [...] It’s been more than a decade since federal law eliminated flavored cigarettes in the United States, with one notable exception: menthol. The flavor that hooked my mom from the start.

Like my parents, I became a physician too and I chose pediatrics. Now I live and work in Florida and have seen the impact of nicotine addiction on my own young patients.

April 27, 2021 by news-medical.net

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in America and causes about 30% of all cancer deaths. That's why researchers with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center wanted to study the impact of a California law passed in 2016 that raised the tobacco sales age from 18 to 21.

Their new study [...] examines smoking behavior after the state implemented one of the first tobacco 21 (T21) policies.

The study, conducted by UC Davis researchers Melanie Dove, Susan Stewart and Elisa Tong, looked at smoking patterns before and after the law passed and compared California and other states without a T21 policy. [...]

April 26, 2021 by vaping360.com

Congressional Democrats have introduced a bill that would impose the first federal tax on vaping products, and increase other tobacco taxes for the first time in a decade. Currently, about half of U.S. states have some kind of vaping product tax, but there is no federal tax.

The bill is supported by longtime Illinois vaping foes Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, and co-sponsored by a handful of the usual Senate vaping opponents. The Tobacco Tax Equity Act Of 2021 (S.1314) will close “loopholes that the industry has exploited to target our children” by doubling the cigarette tax [...]

April 23, 2021 by medicalxpress.com

There appears to be a silver lining to forced school and business closures during early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study: Fewer kids used e-cigarettes. "The combination of not being able to share, not having access to retail outlets and affordability were significant predictors of drops in vaping," said study author Jennifer Kreslake, research director from the Schroeder Institute at Truth Initiative, a Washington, D.C.-based anti-tobacco group.

April 23, 2021 by medium.com

Something very curious is happening as anti-tobacco groups led by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids seek city-by-city, state-by-state bans on flavored tobacco products.

They have succeeded in just one state — Massachusetts, which ended the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, e-cigarettes and cigars, last June. In a full-page ad in The Boston Globe, the anti-tobacco groups thanked lawmakers “for protecting our kids and communities.”

April 22, 2021 by poz.com

It may be that all smoking isn’t bad for you in the same way. According to an analysis published in EClinical Medicine, smoking cigarettes is far more likely to lead to heart disease than smoking marijuana.

The analysis conducted by David Lorenz, PhD, a research scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and colleagues adds to the already overwhelming data showing that smoking tobacco—a practice more prevalent among people with HIV—is associated with shorter life spans and worse HIV outcomes. This analysis [...] included 245 people at least 40 years old who were followed between 2016 and 2018.

April 22, 2021 by eurekalert.org

Just as e-cigarette ingredients can vary from one region to another, the health effects of vaping can have regional characteristics as well. A new study out of West Virginia University suggests that rural e-cigarette users are older--and often get sicker--than their urban counterparts. Researchers with the WVU School of Medicine are investigating severe lung injuries occurring among e-cigarette users in rural Appalachia. In a recent study, Sunil Sharma [...] and his colleagues present a case study of patients with EVALI (electronic cigarettes and vaping-associated lung injury) admitted to WVU hospitals from August 2019 to March 2020.

April 21, 2021 by filtermag.org

Across the country, local and state lawmakers are proposing to enact new taxes and/or increasing existing excise taxes on e-cigarettes. Some are introducing these measures ostensibly to address youth vaping. Others want to impose taxes that match existing cigarette and other tobacco taxes. A few—like West Virginia Governor Jim Justice—have introduced outrage vapor taxes in order to generate the revenue to eliminate other taxes.