Thinking 'bout THR Newsletter
September 3-6, 2024
CDC releases youth numbers - how many kids are smoking?
Published today CDC MMWR: Notes from the Field: E-Cigarette and Nicotine Pouch Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2024. “During 2023–2024, current e-cigarette use among middle and high school students declined from 7.7% to 5.9%. Current nicotine pouch use (1.8%) did not change significantly during this period.”
FDA: Results from the Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey.
Good news about youth vaping and pouches! And smoking? Who knows? If one kid vaping is too many, how many kids smoking is too many? Do we no longer care if kids smoke?
Quickly searching for headlines (Will pouches be the new “sky is falling?” Let’s see!). To save space, I’m going to skip quoting the “harming developing brains” part mentioned in many of these:
WaPo: Youth vaping on the decline, federal survey shows. (paywalled)
CNN: E-cigarette use among youth in the US declined to the lowest level in a decade. “…and now, the rise of nicotine pouches is a growing concern.”
NBC News: Are teens finally ditching vaping? New data show lowest levels in a decade. (Note from me: can anyone explain this statement to me? Too much nicotine is too much, no matter the source, so I don’t understand this! ~Skip) “The products on the market today are advertising as much as 15,000 puffs.
“That matters because unlike cigarettes, when vaping, there’s no stop signal,” Levy said. “It’s like popcorn. Before you know it, you’ve eaten all of it.” (Do any kids think of pouches as NRT? ~ Skip) “Levy called the products [nicotine pouches] “problematic” because they are often confused with the nicotine replacement therapies used by adults to help them quit smoking.”
STAT: Youth vaping continues its tumble from a Juul-fueled high. (Paywalled)
NYT: Teenage E-Cigarette Use Continues to Decline. “Some health officials also cautioned that problems are still cropping up and remain worrisome. The latest youth tobacco survey tracked an emergence of youth use of nicotine pouches such as Zyn, though at low levels, with about 2 percent of adolescents reporting use.”
Truth Initiative: Press Release. “Nicotine pouch use remains low at 1.8% (480,000 middle and high school students), but 29.3% of current users report frequent use, and 22.4% use pouches daily, a disturbing trend given the high nicotine levels.”
USA Today: Good news on teen vaping? Rates have dropped, but another product worries tobacco watchdogs. “The survey showed that more teens have turned to nicotine pouches in recent years…”
There are many more like the above…
I know I’ve mentioned this a few times over the last couple of weeks. Still, I will repeat it—15 past presidents of SRNT, Cliff Douglas, and Morven VII Report are but a few of the many examples of the plea to find balance in the conversation about nicotine. When do the people who smoke become an equal portion of the equation?
Until next time….
FDA v. Wages and White Lion, aka the “Triton” case.
Triton Case: Briefs on “Poisonous” Vape Flavors Flood Supreme Court. “It is safe to assume that the vast majority of people who first use an e-cigarette during a hypothetical free-for-all would become long-term users,” the brief stated, “and would suffer all the health consequences that come with prolonged tobacco use.” (Article about several briefs)
Global Action to End Smoking Files Amicus Brief with U.S. Supreme Court Seeking FDA’s Proper Application of Public Health Standard. (Press release)
Durbin, Pallone, Merkley Lead Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court To Support FDA's Public Health Authority And Actions To Regulate E-Cigarettes. (Press release)
Minnesota
MN Attorney General warns nicotine retailers to remove all products that do not have FDA marketing orders, including those that have not received a ruling on their PMTA. (Letter)
Modelling the impact of vaping: what we need to know and which methods to use. (Click “PDF” to access the paper) “Many other designs and data sources (for a comprehensive list see18) exist that can help estimate the required parameters pertaining to the health consequences of vaping, and its impact on behaviour change among smokers and non-users. However, as each approach has unique advantages, drawbacks and biases, it is likely that formal triangulation of data sources and methods19 will provide the most complete answer to evaluate the population impact of vaping. Now is the time for making using of these varied methodologies to improve our knowledge of the impact of vaping on population health.”
Expert reaction to new report on regulation of vaping. Comments from Lion Shahab and Peter Hajek.
Study: Depressed youth twice as likely to start vaping. “A survey of Australian adolescents finds those who are experiencing depressive symptoms have double the risk of taking up vaping.”
Finland plans to raise tax on tobacco products but not vapes. “However, despite evidence proving that vapes help smokers to quit, a leading anti-smoking charity has hit out at the decision not to tax them on a par with cigarettes.”
Tobacco users demand protection. (Uganda) “Tobacco harm reduction activists are urging the government to revise the Tobacco Control Act to incorporate the harm reduction principle. Tobacco harm reduction is a public health strategy that is about minimizing the negative health impact of smoking.”
Will the next EU Tobacco Products Directive embrace harm reduction? “However, critics contend that continuing the existing approach or adopting an even more hostile stance toward novel nicotine products may prevent the EU from achieving its goal of a “‘tobacco-free generation” (defined as a smoking prevalence of less than 5 percent) by 2040.”
Kicking the habit: How tobacco counsellors offer individual support to smokers. (Belgium) “We don’t usually recommend electronic devices for the first or second intervention. But when other methods have failed, they can be a last resort.”
Pragmatism to reduce smoking in Spain. “The global public health discourse today demonizes nicotine as the main enemy,” he points out, while assuming that “the Swedish approach demonstrates that nicotine itself is not the main problem in smoking-related diseases, but the way in which it is consumed.”
GDC Senate Study Committee: What If Prisoners Were Allowed Cigarettes? “Allowing us to have cigarettes or less-harmful alternatives like vapes would not, of course, mean an end to needless deaths entirely. But the health harms Oliver is so concerned with are currently worse than if we had access to regulated cigarettes, let alone vapes or other smokeless options. There would be less contraband. Less violence. Less debt. Less suffering.”
The events listed below focus on nicotine. Some do not support reduced-risk products. Some have covered nicotine in the past but may not cover that topic every year.
Sep 7-10, 2024, San Diego, CA, US (In-person & Virtual) World Conference on Lung Cancer.
Sep 8-14, 2024 National Suicide Prevention Week
Sep 8-11, 2024, Atlanta, GA, US - 77TH TOBACCO SCIENCE RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Sep 9, 2024 (Virtual) - Mindfulness Training for Smokers *FACILITATOR TRAINING.
Sep 9, 2024 (Virtual) - Webinar Series: Clearing the Air: Steps to Going Smokefree.
*NEW* Sep 10, 2024, 10 AM ET, Washington DC, (In-person and virtual) Chairs Rodgers and Guthrie Announce Health Hearing with Heads of FDA Human Foods Program and Tobacco Center. On the agenda: H.R. 9425, Tobacco User Fee Modernization Act of 2024 (Rep. McClellan)
Sep 10, 2024 (Virtual) 11:00 AM CT - PAVe Dangers of Youth Vaping: What Parents Need to Know in 2024.
Sep 11-13, 2024, SCHAUMBURG, IL, US (Industry specific) - CSP Tobacco+ Forum.
Sep 12, 2024 (Virtual) - Design and effectiveness of a vaping cessation intervention for adolescent e-cigarette users: Results from a randomized trial.
Sep 16-17, 2024 (Virtual) - 7th Summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction by SCOHRE
Sep 17-19, 2024, Geneva, Switzerland - World Cancer Congress (Includes sessions about tobacco.)
Sep 20, 2024, (Virtual) 2:00-3:00 PM ET - TOPS Tobacco Online Policy Seminars.
Sep 20, 2024 (Virtual) - Conversations on Cancer: National Hispanic Family Cancer Awareness Week.
Sep 23, 2024, NYC, NY, US - New Approaches Conference
Sep 24-26, 2024, Athens, Greece - GTNF
Sep 25, 2024 - World Lung Day
Sep 27-Oct 1, 2024, Orlando, FL, US - American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition. Monday, Sept. 30: “What’s All the Buzz? New and Emerging Nicotine Products Addicting Youth,” Brian King, Ph.D., M.P.H
Sep 29, 2024 - World Heart Day
*NEW* Sep 30, 2024, 11 AM BST (Virtual) - Behavioural Research UK: Causality, evidence and policy in behavioural research.
Sep 30, 2024, 8 AM - 6 PM (In-person) London - Nicotine addiction 2024: Action on smoking.
October - Healthy Lung Month
October - Health Literacy Month
Oct 3-4, 2024, Burlington, VT, US (In-person & Virtual) - Vermont Center on Behavior and Health 12th Annual Conference. 2024 Theme: "Tobacco Use: Intersections with Other Addictions, Chronic Disease, and Health Disparities."
Oct 4, 2024, (Virtual) 2:00-3:00 PM ET - TOPS Tobacco Online Policy Seminars.
Oct 13-17, 2024, Edinburgh, Scotland - CORESTA Congress 2024
Oct 14-17, 2024 (In-person) PA, US - Clearing the Air® Institute. American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation
Oct 15, 2024, US (Virtual) - FDLI Introduction to Tobacco Law and Regulation
Oct 23-25, 2024, Lisbon, Portugal - LISBON ADDICTIONS European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies. (Some of the sessions are about tobacco/nicotine.)
Oct 23-25, 2024, Broadbeach, Australia - Oceania Tobacco Control Conference 2024. See list of Conflict of Interest Principles.
Oct 23, 2024, Washington DC, US (In-person and Virtual) - FDLI Tobacco and Nicotine Products Regulatory Science Symposium
Oct 24-25,2024, Washington DC, US (In-person and Virtual) - FDLI Tobacco and Nicotine Products Regulation and Policy Conference.
Oct 27-30, 2024, Minneapolis, MN, US - 2024 APHA Annual Meeting and Expo (Public Health). Register here.
Oct 28, 2024, Charleston, SC, US (In-Person & Virtual) 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM ET - Susan Rosenblatt lecture: Brian King
Oct 28-29, 2024, Charleston, SC, US (Virtual and In-Person) 2024 NICOTINE AND TOBACCO SCIENCE CONFERENCE
November - COPD Awareness Month
November - Lung Cancer Awareness Month
Nov 6-8, 2024, Harrisburg, PA, 2024 James E. Anderson Pennsylvania Conference on Juvenile Justice. One of the workshops, Restorative Solutions: Rethinking Youth Tobacco, Nicotine, and Vaping Dependency
Nov 13-14, 2024, Accra, Ghana - Africa Conference on Tobacco Control.
Nov 14-15, 2024, UK - SSA Annual Conference. Early bird discounts until September 9, 2024. Professor Ann McNeill will give the Society Lecture at the SSA’s Annual Conference. The title of the talk is, ‘Tobacco harm reduction – controversies and potential resolutions’.
Nov 14-16, 2024, Chicago, IL, US—AMERSA Conference—Note: We won't know until the agenda is announced if nicotine will be part of this year's conference.
Nov 14-16, 2024, Ontario, Canada - CSAM-SMCA 2024 Scientific Conference.
*NEW* Nov 18-20, 2024, Olomouc, Czech Republic, (In-person) - Czech Annual Cancer Research Meeting. Note: Keynote talks: Prof. David Khayat on Cancer Risk Factors: The Role of Tobacco Harm Reduction.
Nov 21, 2024, Great American Smokeout
December 5, 2024, UK (Virtual and In-person), E-Cigarette Summit UK
Dec 30, 2024, World Safer Nicotine Day #WSND #WSND24
Scroll Down for 2025 and 2026 Events
Check out the public Google calendar of THR-related events created and maintained by Clive Bates. Also, check out the event calendar from Ecig Intelligence. Their listings include consumer/trade shows and expos that I don't include in this newsletter. This is a good resource for information on conferences about addiction/behavior.
Committee Openings
FDLI - Applications for 2025 Committee Service are Now Open. Application Deadline is September 20, 2024.
Wanted: Conference/Seminar Submissions…
TOPS Tobacco Online Policy Seminar call for papers/nominations. The submission deadline is October 7, 2024.
Call for Papers
Themed issue/section on Non-Medicinal Oral Nicotine Products. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024
Tobacco Use in Adolescents and Youth. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024
Tobacco Use, Vaping, Heating, Nicotine Dependence, Smoking Cessation, and Public Health. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024
Cancer prevention. Submission Deadline: 11 October 2024
Mental Health, Stigma and Addictive Behaviors. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2024
Empirical modeling. Submission deadline: 28 November 2024
Generating stronger evidence to inform policy and practice: natural experiments on built environments, health behaviours and chronic diseases. Submission deadline: November 30, 2024
A Means to an ENDS: The Uncertainty of ENDS Use and Cardiovascular Disease From Human Research to Basic Science Mechanisms. Submission deadline: 31 December 2024
Cancer Causes and Control. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024
Factors Associated with Successful Smoking Cessation. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024
Scroll down for 2025 opportunities
Call for Papers
E-cigarettes and Vaping Products: Health Effects and Toxicological Impacts. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 21 January 2025
Thinking Outside the Box to Reduce Health Inequities in Perinatal Tobacco and Nicotine Exposure: A Nicotine & Tobacco Research Themed Issue Nicotine & Tobacco Research intends to publish a themed issue on Prenatal Tobacco and Nicotine Exposure. The guest editors for this issue will be Dr. Natacha De Genna, Dr. Laura Stroud, and Prof. Yael Bar-Zeev. Submission deadline: February 1, 2025.
LGBTQ+ Health. Submission deadline: 04 March 2025
Consumer behaviour. Submission deadline: 25 March 2025
Wearable devices. Submission deadline: 27 March 2025
The Tobacco Endgame in Low- And Middle-Income Countries and Indigenous Communities: Evidence Syntheses and Systematic Reviews. Submission deadline: 25 May 2025
STRONGER Scholars: A Research Education Program to Reduce Tobacco-Related Cancer Disparities and Improve Health Equity. A special issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025
Jan 15-19, 2025 Seattle, WA, US - Society for Social Work and Research.
Feb 13-15, 2025, Boston, MA, US - 2025 AAAS ANNUAL MEETING. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
Mar 5, 2025 York, UK (In-person & Virtual SCAH - Smoking Cessation and Health Conference.
Mar 12-15, 2025 New Orleans, LA, US - SRNT 31st Annual Meeting
Mar 27-29, 2025 - Phoenix, AZ, US - 31st Nicotine Dependence Center Conference 2025: The Evolving Tobacco Landscape and Implications for Policy and Practice.
April 15-17, 2025, Arlington, VA, US - American Tobacco & Nicotine Forum (ATNF), formerly the TMA Annual Meeting & Conference (I’m not aware of a link available to the event yet)
Apr 27-30, 2025 - Bogotá, Colombia - 28th edition of the Harm Reduction Conference (HR25)
June 2025, Bangor, Maine, US - 2025 Tobacco Treatment and Prevention Conference.
Aug 26-28, 2025 Chicago, IL, US - The National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH) (Link is to the announcement, not event info)
Sep 10-12, 2025 Romania - SRNT-E Conference.
Nov 17, 2025 (all week) Geneva - FCTC COP11
Nov 24, 2025 (all week) Geneva - FCTC MOP4
Mar 4-6, 2026 Baltimore, MD, US - SRNT 32nd Annual Meeting.
Sep 6-9 2026, Cape Town, South Africa - 18th World Conference on Public Health.
Notes:
I create these newsletters as a personal project. They are not affiliated with any current or past employers or groups I do volunteer work with. I believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table. If you’re interested in nicotine with a focus on THR, this newsletter is for you.