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American Medical Association (AMA) joins lawsuit against FDA
The American Medical Association (AMA) today joined the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) and Action on Smoking and Health US (ASH) as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The complaint requests that the court compel the FDA to take action on its own conclusions that it would benefit public health to add menthol to the list of prohibited characterizing flavours and therefore ban it from sale.
In 2009, Congress passed—and President Obama signed into law—the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The act created a flavor ban in cigarettes but excluded menthol, subject to further research, creating a massive gap in protection for African Americans. In 2011, the FDA’s Advisory Committee concluded that the “Removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States.”
Despite this conclusion, and several statements of support in the interim, the FDA has not begun the rulemaking process of removing menthol from combustible cigarettes.
“For generations, tobacco companies have promoted menthol cigarettes to the African American community, preying especially on African American youth,” said AMA President Susan R. Bailey, M.D.
“The results are clear and grim; although African Americans usually smoke fewer cigarettes and start smoking at an older age, they are more likely than Whites to die from smoking-related diseases like heart disease and stroke. The American Medical Association has longstanding policies supporting banning menthol in combustible tobacco products and calling for the FDA to prohibit the use of flavoring agents in all tobacco products.
“We are proud to join AATCLC and ASH in this effort to compel FDA to meet its mandate and take action to ban menthol-flavored tobacco products. This action is long, long overdue.”
Source: Webwire, 3 September 2020
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US: More jobs to go as Juul feels heat
Juul is planning more job cuts and may unwind its overseas expansion, after the e-cigarette company was hit by stricter regulation and concerns about its marketing. The American vaping company has cut about a third of its 3,000 workforce this year and quit countries in Europe after a drop in sales and increased competition from Vuse, a rival produced by the London-based British American Tobacco (BAT).
The market has been hit by a crackdown in America, where concerns about the appeal to young people, particularly because of marketing by Juul, led to a regulatory ban of fruit and mint-flavoured cartridges.
Source: The Times, 4 September 2020
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‘Social smokers’ face disproportionate risk of death from lung disease and lung cancer
‘Social smokers’ are more than twice as likely to die of lung disease and more than eight times as likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers, according to research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.
The study also shows that the risk of lung cancer death for ‘social smokers’ – those who smoke less than ten cigarettes per day – is disproportionately high, although lower than those who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.
Researchers say their study suggests that cutting down the number of cigarettes smoked is no substitute for quitting.
The study included 18,730 people selected from a multi-ethnic sample of the general US population with an average age of 61. Researchers followed the people for an average of 17 years, during which time 649 died of respiratory disease and 560 died of lung cancer.
Study author Dr Pallavi Balte said: “Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but it’s easy to assume that if you only smoke a little, the risks won’t be too high.
“Previous research suggests that people are cutting down on smoking, for example in the USA the proportion of smokers smoking less than ten cigarettes per day has increased from 16% to 27%. So, we wanted to study the risks to social smokers compared to people who don’t smoke and compared to heavier smokers.”
“You might think that if you only smoke a few cigarettes a day you are avoiding most of the risk. But our findings suggesting that social smoking is disproportionately harmful. Smoking is dangerous, regardless of whether you are a heavy smoker or a social smoker, so if you don’t want to die of lung cancer or respiratory disease, the best action is to quit completely.”
Source: Scienmag, 3 September 2020
Abstract no: OA4389, "Association of low-intensity smoking with respiratory and lung cancer mortality", by Pallavi Balte et al; "From tobacco and vaping health effects to tobacco cessation" session, 10:40 - 11:40 hrs CEST, Tuesday 8 September
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Joint statement to the Government on Public Health Reorganisation
Over 100 public health organisations have backed a joint statement to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Health, and the interim leadership of Public Health England, raising serious concerns about the reorganisation of public health now underway.
The statement, published on Tuesday (2 September), sets out the principles which all agree must underpin the new health improvement system. This includes the need for renewed investment into public health to address the years of cuts the sector has seen, an interconnected approach with the right infrastructure and expertise to support national, regional and local delivery; and the need to sustain local government system leadership at local level, while strengthening co-ordination with the NHS.
Joint statement to the Government on Public Health Reorganisation and List of signatories
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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