National Academies Replaces Big Alcohol-Conflicted Researcher on Review Panel with Another Big Alcohol-Conflicted Researcher
Just over one month ago, Ireported that the National Academies had appointed to their newly formedexpert committee to review the health effects of alcohol two scientists who were principal investigators of a research grant funded by the alcohol industry to the tune of $67 million (Dr. Eric Rimm and Dr. Kenneth Mukamal). AfterNew York Times reporter Roni Rabin exposed these conflicts of interest in anarticle, the National Academies announced that it had pulled both Dr. Rimm and Dr. Mukamal from the panel and would replace them.The National Academies recently announced the replacement panelists, and one of them is Dr. Luc ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - January 5, 2024 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Why is the National Academies Appointing Alcohol-Industry Funded Researchers to Serve on Panel to Review the Health Effects of Alcohol?
In conclusion, there is no doubt that Dr. Mukamal should be removed from the National Academies panel in order to preserve the integrity of both the panel and of the National Academies itself.Although Dr. Rimm was not involved in the solicitation of funding, he didserve as a principal investigator of the MACH trial. Thus, he has been funded by the alcohol industry and this conflict of interest should disqualify him from participating in, much less chairing the panel. Dr. Rimmshould be removed from the National Academies panel in order to preserve the integrity of both the panel and of the National Academies itself.T...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - November 30, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

American Lung Association Wants to Keep Smokers Misinformed About the Relative Risks of Different Tobacco Products
Incomments submitted to the FDA in response to the Center for Tobacco Products ' (CTP) draft strategic plan, the American Lung Association expressed its opposition to one of the strategic goals, which was to " inform adults who smoke about the relative risks of tobacco products. " This goal primarily expressed the desire of the CTP to inform smokers that electronic cigarettes are much safer than real cigarettes and therefore may be considered as a safer alternative for smokers who are unable to quit using other cessation methods.The American Lung Association does not approve of this goal, writing: "Remove language from the...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - August 31, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

University of Maryland Doctor Tells Public He's Not Sure Smoking is Any More Hazardous than Vaping
In anarticle published today byABC News, a physician from the University of Maryland is quoted as telling the public that he isn ' t sure that smoking is any more hazardous than vaping.According to the article: "' We just cannot make a conclusion that it [vaping] is safer than cigarettes, ' said Dr. Jason Rose, a Pulmonary and Critical Care Physician who is also the Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Innovation& Physician Science at The University of Maryland. "  Of course, stating that you ' re not sure if vaping is safer than cigarettes is equivalent to saying that you ' re not sure smo...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - July 31, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Great Article on the CDC's Misinformation Campaign About Electronic Cigarettes
A very well-researched and well-documentedarticle on the CDC ' s misinformation campaign about electronic cigarettes by my friend and colleague over at Handwaving Freakoutery: " Real Talk About Nicotine: How CDC Propaganda Leads to Bad Medicine and Kills People. " (Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary)
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - July 29, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Medical Journal Retracts Vaping Study for Political, Rather than Scientific Reasons
The journalBMC Public Health has announced that it will be retracting apaper it published last October which concluded that the use of electronic cigarettes has helped accelerate the decline in cigarette smoking. The study, entitled " Population-level counterfactual trend modelling to examine the relationship between smoking prevalence and e-cigarette use among US adults, " analyzed U.S. population-based data on trends in e-cigarette consumption and smoking prevalence from approximately 8 years prior to when e-cigarettes became popular in the U.S. through 2019. The authors used adult cigarette prevalence trends from 1...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - July 28, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

American Heart Association Still Refuses to Tell the Truth About EVALI and Makes No Specific Recommendation that Youth Avoid Vaping THC Products
In an American Heart Association (AHA) " scientific statement "published this week in the journalCirculation, the AHA continues to confuse the public about the so-called EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury) outbreak that occurred in 2019, suggesting that it may be due to " flavoring agents, " " viruses, " or " bacteria " and that no specific agent has been identified as the cause. Despite the fact that vitamin E acetate was found in a miraculous 94% of bronchoalveolar lavage fluids of EVALI patients, that no putative contaminant has ever been found in a non-tainted nicotine-containing e-cigarettte, tha...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - July 17, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Idaho Public Television and State Health Officials Lie to the Public by Telling them Smoking is Not More Harmful than Vaping
In a public education campaign entitled " Do You Know Vape? " Idaho Public Television in collaboration with the state health districts isinforming the public that: " Vaping isnot safer than cigarette smoking. "The campaign is also making several other alarming claims, including that:vaping causes brain, bone, and lung injury to young people;third-hand aerosol from vaping (i.e., particles that stick to surfaces) can cause "asthma,respiratory illness, increased risk of disease, headaches andincreased risk of cancer" ; and vaping exposes users tometals in the lungs that can cause lung cancer.The Rest of the StoryRather t...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 21, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

ISFAR Criticizes New Alcohol Guidance Issued by Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction But Fails to Reveal Its Conflicts of Interest with Big Alcohol
Earlier this year, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released anew guidance on alcohol use. The guidance was notable for concluding that there is a dose-response relationship between the amount of alcohol one consumes and one ' s risk of disease or injury and therefore, greater amounts of alcohol consumption are associated with poorer health outcomes. In particular, the guidance concluded that drinking no alcohol is safer than drinking a low or moderate amount of alcohol.The International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research (ISFAR) has just published a stingingcritique of the new guidance. The critique es...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 23, 2023 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

New Study Finds that Switching from Smoking to Vaping Reduces Heart Disease Risk by 34%
This study should cause the FDA to stop everything they are doing and re-assess the balance between the benefits and costs of making vaping products available to adult smokers. Rather than ban 99% of these products, which the agency seems poised to do, it should allow most of these products to remain on the market. However, I believe that the agency should also promulgate a rule that limits the sale of all tobacco and nicotine products to stores that exclusively sell these products and are only open to adults ages 21 and older. This is the best way to balance the risks and benefits of vaping.Unfortunately, I have little do...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - May 11, 2022 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

CDC is Concealing and Suppressing Information on Youth Marijuana Vaping to Over-hype Harms of E-Cigarettes
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is concealing and suppressing information on the number one cause of severe, vaping-related health harm to youths in order to deceive the public into thinking that e-cigarettes are at the top of the list.In fact, the number one cause of severe, vaping-related health damage to youths is not electronic cigarettes, although you would not know that from reading the CDC ' s literature on youth vaping.The Rest of the StoryThe chief cause of substantial health harms to youth from vaping is actually not e-cigarettes. It is marijuana or THC vaping.The hundreds of youth who have b...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - January 26, 2020 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Tobacco Researcher Claims that Smoking May Be Safer than E-Cigarettes
Imagine if a tobacco company came out today and publicly claimed that smoking might very well be safer than using an e-cigarette. It would be a completely irresponsible statement and the company would rightly be vigorously criticized and attacked for asserting that its deadly products, which kill more than 400,000 people each year, are potentially safer than e-cigarettes, which do not contain tobacco, involve no combustion, and have been documented to have much lower levels of thousands of different chemicals compared to cigarettes.In a strange an shocking irony, that exact claim was made today, but it came not from Big To...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - January 9, 2020 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Vape Shops Saved for Now: Dodged One Bullet, But Now Must Dodge Another One
I am expecting the FDA to announce this afternoon that it plans to enforce a ban on the sale of all flavored e-cigarette pods and cartridges for closed vaping systems, with the exception of tobacco and menthol flavors, but that it is exempting e-liquids and vape juices sold for open systems. This means that the restriction will primarily affect the vaping products sold by convenience stores, but not all of the products sold by vape shops.The decision of the FDA not to ban all flavored e-cigarettes is a huge victory for public health. By allowing vape shops to continue selling flavored vape liquids, the FDA is preventing hu...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - January 2, 2020 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

American Academy of Family Physicians Bemoans Fact that Many People Correctly Link Respiratory Disease Outbreak to THC Vapes
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) hasreleased the results of a survey it commissioned to examine public attitudes regarding what CDC has incorrectly called the EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping-associated lung illness) outbreak. The AAFP reports the results as follows:" In the online survey of 1,000 people aged 16 to 30 who vape, 93% of respondents said they were aware of the EVALI outbreak, and 65% said they were closely following news regarding the issue. More than 70% of respondents indicated they planned to be more careful about the products they buy and to reduce their use of vape products, and 86% were con...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 24, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Newest CDC Data Confirm that Respiratory Disease Outbreak was Caused by Vitamin E Acetate Oil in THC Vaping Cartridges
The CDC has released new data which almost definitively confirm that the respiratory disease outbreak was caused by vitamin E acetate oil in THC vaping products (and perhaps some CBD vaping products as well).I came to the same conclusion on August 25th, as did many experts from the cannabis industry who helped to inform my conclusion. Why it took the CDC four additional months of intensive investigation to discover something that cannabis industry experts had recognized much earlier is mystifying.Previously, CDC had tested lung fluids from 29 of the case patients. All 29 contained vitamin E acetate. This past Thursday, CDC...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 22, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs