Maine legislators are looking at two bills related to tobacco products. One is a tax increase which is one of the CDC’s best practices. The other is a flavored product ban, which more studies are showing is an effective tool to help stop youth initiation.
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The Biden administration announced a plan to start the rule-making process to ban menthol cigarettes in the United States. This would not take effect for a few years. TFND supports this process as menthol products have had a devastating effect on public health, especially in minority communities. A study published in February shows from 1980 to 2018, menthol cigarettes were responsible for 10.1 million extra smokers, 378,000 premature deaths and 3 million life years lost during this time period. This amounts to nearly 10,000 premature deaths and over 265,000 new smokers each year over the 38-year period.
Read the full FDA release by clicking here
The Bloomington City Council voted 4-2 to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol. That ban will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022.
The ordinance also allows for the sunsetting or end of all tobacco licenses in the city, and the city decided to not issue any new tobacco licenses in the future.
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The CDC and FDA sent a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine detailing a shift in how youth are using vaping products. The letter confirms youth are switching to disposable products. To learn more about the developing trend and read the letter, click here.
Puff Bar was ordered to take their products off the market by the FDA. They’ve brought them back in an effort to skirt FDA regulations and get youth hooked on nicotine. Read more about their move in this Wall Street Journal article.
TFND is happy to announce the Video Essay Scholarship Contest is back for North Dakota high school seniors! The winner will get a $1,000 scholarship. For more information, click on the “Video Essay Scholarship Contest” Tab.
The Anchorage Assembly passed an ordinance to include all vaping products in the city’s tobacco tax. The full story can be read by clicking here.
The American Medical Association has signed onto a lawsuit filed in June trying to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban menthol flavored tobacco products. The suit says menthol disproportionately affects people of color.
An October 13 article from Bloomberg Business further explains the suit and why the AMA decided to sign on as a co-defendant.
This article in the The Guardian shows tobacco companies giving kickbacks- in the form of cash, trips and more, to retailers in Australia for helping boost sales. Australia has some of the toughest laws in the world regarding tobacco control.
To read the full article, click here.
This release from the World Health Organization shows how tobacco use is responsible for one in five deaths from coronary heart disease. Below is the release, or you can read at the original link by clicking here.
“Every year, 1.9 million people die from tobacco-induced heart disease, according to a new brief released today by the World Health Organization, World Heart Federation and the University of Newcastle Australia ahead of World Heart Day, marked on 29 September.
This equates to one in five of all deaths from heart disease, warn the report’s authors, who urge all tobacco users to quit and avoid a heart attack, stressing that smokers are more likely to experience an acute cardiovascular event at a younger age than non-smokers.
Just a few cigarettes a day, occasional smoking, or exposure to second-hand smoke increase the risk of heart disease. But if tobacco users take immediate action and quit, then their risk of heart disease will decrease by 50% after one year of not smoking.
“Given the current level of evidence on tobacco and cardiovascular health and the health benefits of quitting smoking, failing to offer cessation services to patients with heart disease could be considered clinical malpractice or negligence. Cardiology societies should train their members in smoking cessation, as well as to promote and even drive tobacco control advocacy efforts,” said Dr Eduardo Bianco, Chair of the World Heart Federation Tobacco Expert Group.
The brief also shows that smokeless tobacco is responsible for around 200 000 deaths from coronary heart disease per year. E-cigarettes also raise blood pressure increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Moreover, high blood pressure and heart disease increase the risk of severe COVID-19. A recent WHO survey found that among people dying of COVID-19 in Italy, 67% had high blood pressure and in Spain, 43% of people who developed COVID-19 were living with heart disease.
“Governments have a responsibility to protect the health of their people and help reverse the tobacco epidemic. Making our communities smoke-free reduces the number of tobacco-related hospital admissions, which is more important than ever in the context of the current pandemic,” said Dr Vinayak Prasad, Unit Lead of the WHO No Tobacco Unit.
Tobacco control is a key element for reducing heart disease. Governments can help tobacco users quit by increasing tax on tobacco products, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and offering services to help people give up tobacco.”