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

  Dr. Joanna Cohen recently authored a misleading and factually incorrect commentary on tobacco harm reduction in The Hill.  Here is my rebuttal, in bold. Cohen: “So why should we trust cigarette companies to help reduce tobacco use?” No one trusts cigarette companies.  That’s why Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco in 2009.  Cohen misrepresents the principle public health goal, which isn’t to reduce tobacco use, but to prevent the 480,000 premature American deaths that result each year from smoking. That number hasn’t appreciab ..read more

  Most health professionals are familiar with Medscape, a free resource that describes itself as “the leading online global destination for physicians and healthcare professionals worldwide, offering the latest medical news and expert perspectives; essential point-of-care drug and disease information; and relevant professional education and [continuing medical education, CME].” Recently, Medscape invited me to assist in developing a series of short CME programs on tobacco harm reduction, which evolved into an examination of nicotine and the differential risks of combusted versus smoke-fr ..read more

Smokers in Japan consumed 92.4 billion cigarettes in 2023 -- less than half as many as they did in 2014.  Since vapor products are illegal there, the impressive decline is likely due to the introduction of heat-not-burn tobacco products, which didn’t exist in 2014, but accounted for 38% of the Japanese tobacco market in 2023.  Notably, this progress occurred in an overall declining tobacco market.  UK tobacco harm reduction advocate Clive Bates previously opined: “The only mystery is why the skies over Tokyo are not dark with chartered planes bringing officials from WHO, FDA ..read more

  Over the years, I have documented cases in which my colleague and I exposed fatal errors in published articles about smoke-free products, but neither authors nor editors acknowledged our efforts. The first case involved researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the University of Minnesota, whose Journal of the National Cancer Institute Cancer Spectrum article (here) reported on overall and cause-specific mortality among users of various tobacco products. The second instance involved an article about e-cigarettes and respiratory diseases in which the authors, including a former m ..read more

  The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is a valuable federal resource for population-level research on tobacco and other substance use.  Analyzing its data, I have published research on how many Americans smoke (here, here, here and here), the illegitimacy of the gateway claim (here), and the role of smoking and smokeless tobacco (ST) use in past-year psychiatric disorders (here).  I have shared in this blog other important NSDUH insights into how many Americans use ST (here), who smokes menthols (here and here), and teen smoking declines before and during the e-c ..read more

  With the emergence of nicotine pouches, claims from the 1980s about the health risks of smokeless tobacco (ST) use have reappeared. Nicotine pouches are an important addition to smokers’ options for reducing harm, but it is inappropriate to devalue them by overstating the risks of ST use, such as opining that it causes leukoplakia and periodontal disease.  This is not the case, and I wish to set the record straight. Leukoplakia In 1995, my research group published an article, “Tobacco Use and Cancer,” that discussed leukoplakia: “Oral leukoplakia was originally defined in 1978 by ..read more

  The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) just introduced a program to discourage underage drinking, aimed specifically at middle schoolers (here). It’s called “Too Soon = Too Dangerous.”  The chart at left, based on data from the government’s Monitoring the Future Survey (MTFS), shows that attention to early substance abuse is timely. There’s long been a broad crusade to prohibit all tobacco and nicotine products. Local and state governments are banning vaping and e-cigarette flavors (examples here, here and here), and the FDA has rejected thousands of flavo ..read more

  My readers know that I have followed the results of the annual Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF) for many years, focusing on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use among high school seniors.  The 2023 MTF results, released in December (here), indicate that past 30-day (i.e., current) use of all products declined from the previous year (as seen in chart at left).     Despite its illegality, drinking alcohol retained its decades-long top-substance status among seniors at 23%, down significantly from 28% in 2022.  Marijuana was second at 18%, one point higher than th ..read more

  An article in the LA Times January 2nd bemoaned the “thousands of new flavored products…pouring into the country from China.”  It claimed, “Nearly all the new products are disposable e-cigarettes, according to sales data gathered from gas stations, convenience stores and other shops. The products generated $3.2 billion in the first 11 months of this [sic] year.” The response from Brian King, director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, was naïve: “Those committing illegal acts don’t advertise their crimes, and those trying to import illegal tobacco products into the United Sta ..read more