The CDC’s EVALI screwup

The world-renowned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes itself as “the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health.” It pledges to “base all public health decisions on the highest quality scientific data.” So why has the CDC refused to admit it was wrong about the deadly disease that it misnamed EVALI? EVALI stands for “E-cigarette or Vaping use-Associated Lung Injury.” The CDC says that 2,807 people were hospitalized and 68 died from the 2019 EVALI outbreak. But there is no evidence–none at all— that anyone got sick with EVALI from using e-cigarettes.

2022-01-18
medium.com

Cocaine E-Cigarette Could Help People Struggling with Addiction

Vaping cocaine might sound like something no scientist would recommend — but a pair of European researchers want to make it reality, and it could actually help people who struggle with stimulant addiction. In a paper recently published in the journal Drug Science, Policy and Law, toxicologist Fabian Steinmetz and addiction research professor Heino Stöver conceptualized a cocaine e-cigarette. The authors say such a device could mitigate the harms of smoking cocaine by reducing the risk of overdose and death, and may help people eventually find treatment when and if they’re ready. [...]

2022-01-18
discovermagazine.com

SMOKING IS UP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A GENERATION. THE PUBLIC HEALTH LOBBY IS TO BLAME

It often takes a long time for health policy influencers, advocates, and proponents to admit fault. When it is about topics such as diet fads, saturated fats, food pyramids, and sugar consumption, long-held consensus beliefs and government actions later proved erroneous have had a lasting negative impact. But nothing has been more egregious and harmful in our current age than the public health lobby’s persistent denialism of the harm reduction value of nicotine vaping products and other alternatives to cigarettes.

2022-01-18
consumerchoicecenter.org

New ACI Report Highlights the Dangers of Overregulating E-Cigarette and Vaping Products

[...] the American Consumer Institute (ACI) released a report, co-authored by Steve Pociask and Liam Sigaud entitled “How Regulations Endanger the Public Health: A Review of the Evidence on E-Cigarette Risks and Benefits, and Policy Missteps.” With some lawmakers looking to impose restrictions, bans, and excessive taxes on these products, this report investigates the empirical evidence surrounding the consumer risks and benefits of e-cigarettes and vaping products relative to smoking tobacco. [...]

2022-01-18
theamericanconsumer.org

Dr. Stuart Kreisman: Time for Canada's first smoke-free generation

The week of Jan. 16 is Canada’s National Non-Smoking Week — disappointingly necessary for a 46th year. More than two generations after the immense dangers of smoking were made crystal clear to society, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in Canada and worldwide, killing seven million annually, including 45,000 Canadians. This is more deaths than those caused by alcohol, drugs, car accidents, murder, suicide and AIDS combined. The Smoke-Free Generation (SFG) is a concept that has been in discussion among health advocates since proposed by a professor in Singapore in 2010. [...]

2022-01-18
vancouversun.com

New Zealand’s bold new tobacco control programme

In December 2021, the New Zealand Ministry of Health published a new tobacco control programme with the goal of reducing smoking prevalence to less than 5% by 2025. The prevalence of current smoking in New Zealand is 10.9%, and the rate of fall suggests that this is a realistic aim. However, the plan goes much further: it seeks, by 2025 to reach 5% or less in all New Zealand population groups. Among the Māori population, for example, this means reducing the proportion who smoke from one in four to one in 20 in just four years. This is an ambitious programme. Will it work?

2022-01-18
bmj.com