FDA Warns Additional Firms for Making and Selling Unauthorized E-Liquids
On January 29, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warning letters to 9 firms who manufacture and sell unauthorized electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). The letters advise the firms that selling products which lack premarket authorization is illegal, and therefore they cannot be sold or distributed in the U.S. None of the firms submitted a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) by the September 9, 2020 deadline. In line with the agency’s stated enforcement priorities, after Sept. 9, 2020, FDA is prioritizing enforcement against any ENDS product that continues to be sold and for which the agency has not received a timely product application. For companies that submitted applications by that deadline, FDA generally intends to continue to defer enforcement for up to one year pending FDA review, unless there is a negative action taken by FDA on the application. The 9 warning letters follow the first set of such letters that were issued on January 15, 2021.
To read the warning letters, please click here.
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States Continue to Shortchange Tobacco Prevention Programs that are Needed More than Ever as Nation Faces Both COVID-19 and Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic
As the nation faces dual health threats from an unprecedented respiratory pandemic that is disproportionately impacting Black and Latino communities and a youth e-cigarette epidemic that threatens millions of young people with a lifetime of addiction, a new report highlights how most states continue to shortchange programs designed to prevent kids from using tobacco products and help tobacco users quit. In fiscal year 2021, states will collect $26.9 billion from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes. But they will spend a paltry 2.4% – just $656 million – on tobacco prevention and cessation programs. The total is an 11% decrease from last year and less than a fifth (19.8%) of the total funding recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Not a single state currently funds its tobacco prevention and cessation programs at CDC-recommended levels. Pennsylvania is ranked 29th in the report for allocating $14.7 million -- only 10.5% of CDC’s recommended spending.
To continue reading, please click here.
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Corporate & Non-Profit Leaders: Don't Give the Tobacco Industry a Platform for Its Dangerous Spin
The Truth Initiative issued a press release to urge the public health community to work free of the influence of the tobacco industry and its proxies to reach a societal goal of elimination of the tobacco epidemic and resist the industry’s corrupting influence. The statement was made following the World Federation of Public Health Associations and the International Network for Epidemiology in Policy decisions to call on all public health organizations to reject all collaborations with the tobacco industry and groups like The Foundation for a Smoke Free World who are exclusively funded by them. According to the Truth Initiative, there is simply no place for an industry that has caused and continues to cause millions of deaths around the world annually to be taken as a serious collaborator towards solving the very epidemic for which it is the cause. In its statement, the Truth Initiative encouraged all entities that are truly committed to ending the tobacco epidemic to:
- Reject funding from the tobacco industry and front groups like the Foundation for a Smoke Free World
- Refuse to allow their publications or convenings to be a platform for industry spin and industry sponsored science
- Reject industry advertising whether it be product or “issue” oriented
- Otherwise refuse to provide support for the industry’s charm offensive while it continues to sell its deadly and addictive products.
To read the full press release, please click here.
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E-cigarettes Stress Lungs, Impair Protein Function
New research out of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory identifies modifications made to proteins that shed light on how e-cigarettes lead to dysfunction. The study determined that e-cigarettes stress and inflame the lungs of rats and compromise important regulatory proteins through exposure. The findings reveal that vaping induces subtle structural changes in proteins, marking the first-time researchers have measured such damage. The results suggest that common compounds in e-cigarettes are not without their own harms. After exposing rats to e-cigarette vapor for three one-hour sessions for three days, researchers discovered signs of oxidative stress: an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the body’s ability to mitigate their harmful effects. According to Matthew McGraw, a coauthor of the study, “many people [don’t] think about how thick or viscous these liquids are. Vegetable glycerin is used in cooking oil. To heat that cooking oil and inhale it into your lungs—when you think about it, even just visually, that’s quite a thing to do.”
To continue reading, please click here.
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Virtual Day at the Capitol 2021 |
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Join advocates from across Pennsylvania as we come together virtually to meet with legislators to advocate for crucial tobacco control issues throughout the Commonwealth. During this virtual event, youth & adult lung health advocates will unite to educate state legislators on the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) funding and why it is so essential to tobacco cessation & prevention programs, as well as the importance of clean indoor air especially during the pandemic. Register today to receive the latest updates on the event, as well as an invitation to our annual Logistics Training webinar with additional information you will need for event day. The registration deadline is April 20.
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
9 a.m. - 2 p.m.**
**Subject to change. Legislative visits will take place in the morning, followed by a virtual Town Hall in the early afternoon. Virtual activities will be available throughout the day
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Incorporating the Vaccine Toolkit: Hearing Back from Communities |
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To provide best practices on how to promote health education and achieve health equity, the American Lung Association collaborated with the Center for Black Health and Equity to develop a vaccine toolkit for use with volunteers, national partners, community partners, etc. This webcast will focus on hearing back from the communities and how they defined the needs of their community. It will serve as a listening session that should help other communities see a unique expansion of their thought patterns. The idea is that we have been prejudiced by our local social constructs.
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
5:30-6:30 p.m. ET
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Health Promotion Resources
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