News & Insights

Six tobacco control and medical groups have asked the FDA to “take immediate action” to protect young people from the rise in use of JUUL e-cigarettes. The groups, led by the Truth Initiative and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, have led a crusade for months to link JUUL to a supposed epidemic of teen vaping.

A study looking at 2015 data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey found that most teen vaping is by youth who are already cigarette smokers. 2015 was the high-water mark for teen e-cigarette use in the United States.

Anti-smoking activist Stanton Glantz, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco, has been sued by a former subordinate for sexual harassment. This is the second harassment suit against Glantz in the last four months. Both lawsuits also charge academic misconduct by Glantz.

Guest columnist Dr. Attila Danko explains how the tobacco control movement in Australia lost its way by transferring hate for the tobacco industry to smokers themselves and fighting a religious war on nicotine use that demanded smokers be punished for their “sin” with death and disease.

A coalition of anti-tobacco groups has filed a federal lawsuit intended to force the FDA Center for Tobacco Products to reinstate its original deadline date for vaping manufacturers to submit applications for premarket review for all existing products. The date was postponed last year from 2018 until Aug. 8, 2022.

The FDA issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, asking for public comment on the role of flavored tobacco products (including e-cigarettes and vapor products) in youth initiation and helping adults quit combustible tobacco. The 90-day comment period begins on March 21, 2018.

The adult smoking rate in the United States dropped below 15 percent for the first time in 2017, according to analysis of survey data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The 14.1 percent rate represents a drop of 31.6 percent since 2009, when the use of e-cigarettes became popular.

The FDA is signalling its intention to look for products that were illegally introduced to the market after the Aug. 8, 2016 freeze on new products. The FDA is calling for bids to perform inspections of vaping manufacturers, which the agency gained regulatory control over through its 2016 Deeming Rule.