My colleague and I have published a new article in Harm Reduction Journal entitled “Joint Smoking-Vaping Prevalence Rates Among American Youth and Young Adults 2011-2022.”  This post is dedicated to U.S. federal government officials, especially at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and the CDC Office of Smoking and Health.  Despite having smoking and vaping data from federal surveys for the past thirteen years, those officials have never published joint prevalence rates.     I present two charts on the left, but please read the full article for more information ..read more

  This post honors Women’s History Month by focusing on a subject long-neglected by government-funded cancer investigators: Why do American women who use smokeless tobacco have 10 times the risk for mouth cancer compared with American men who dip and chew tobacco? This question arose in 2016, when Annah Wyss of the National Institute of Environment Health Science and 20 government-funded coauthors reported that American men had no excess mouth cancers associated with dipping or chewing tobacco (Odds Ratio, OR = 0.9), while American women, who mainly used powdered dry snuff, had ten times ..read more

  In the July issue of JAMA, Robert Jackler and Pamela Ling discussed Medscape’s agreement with Philip Morris International to produce continuing medical education on tobacco harm reduction. I objected to their screed in a letter to the JAMA editor, noting that Jackler/Ling made false claims about the course content and about me personally. I underscored that JAMA’s stated goal is, “To maintain the highest standards of editorial integrity and quality independent of any special interests,” and, “To foster responsible and balanced debate on important issues that affect medicine, health, he ..read more

Responding to a petition from the FDA, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the Triton case (formally known as Wages & White Lion Investments, LLC).  The Circuit Court, sitting en banc, had found that the FDA failed to follow proper administrative procedures in considering Triton’s vaping pre-market tobacco application (PMTA), and the agency’s denial order was vacated. Appealing that decision, the FDA filed a brief to the Supreme Court, available here.  I will not comment on the myriad legal and regulatory implications of the case, bu ..read more

  For years we have seen a battle over the banning of menthol cigarettes.  On one side are prohibitionists, who believe that society’s ills can be cured by proscribing specific behaviors and products.  Opposing a ban are libertarians and those civil rights advocates who fear that prohibition would promote illegal sales and consumption, particularly in the African-American community.  I have commented several times on who smokes menthols (here, here, here and here); this column was precipitated by a March 22 New York Times article by Sheila Kaplan, “Menthol Cigarettes Kill ..read more

  I recently read on X (Twitter) a tribute to the book, “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper,” by John Allen Paulos.  The author is a professor of mathematics at Temple University, and his bio, here, is impressive.  The book, still in print and available on Kindle, was originally published in 1995.  More importantly, it remains relevant today, especially, as the reviewer put it, if you want to “become smarter and a better consumer of information who will not fall into [the] many traps of the media.” I don’t recall having contact with Paulos, but his tome includes these two ..read more

  I recently participated in a panel discussion about tobacco harm reduction (THR) at the Tobacco Merchants Association meeting.  While assembling my powerpoint presentation, I recalled that I presented to this group 18 years ago, in 2006, what was likely their first introduction to THR.  To view my 10-minute primer on bad science – then and now – watch this video, starting at the 26-minute mark.  I discuss the genesis of the myth that smokeless dip and chew products present a high risk for mouth cancer (discussed extensively in this blog by searching for “Winn”), and my T ..read more

  Earlier this year, Medscape, which describes itself as “the leading online global destination for physicians and healthcare professionals worldwide,” invited me to participate in a series of short continuing medical education (CME) programs on tobacco harm reduction (THR).  Medscape clearly disclosed that the series was sponsored by Philip Morris International, but the programs were firewalled; faculty were not in contact with or influenced by the sponsor. Topics included, among others, an examination of nicotine, and the differential risks of combusted versus smoke-free tobacco/n ..read more

  The U.S. desperately needs tobacco harm reduction, starting with reducing the harm from the pronouncements of federal officials.  Case in point: FDA Commissioner Robert Califf’s April 11 tobacco testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Dr. Califf made so many false statements that I penned a response for Real Clear Health. Following are some additional observations related to his testimony. Readers know that I don’t tolerate doctors who claim they saw many people die from the ravages of tobacco, when those patients actually died from the smoke!  Similarly, I can’t let ..read more

  My readers know that I have focused on exaggerated or fraudulent population-based research on vapor products.  But anti-tobacco crusaders have also published numerous studies, predominantly funded by the National Institutes of Health, that widely exaggerate the toxicity of vape aerosols and, through university press releases taken up verbatim by uncritical media, spread like an uncontrollable virus.  There is an antidote, in the form of Dr. Roberto Sussman, an astrophysicist based at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico.  He offers ..read more