“Experts concerned over health effects of high-dose nicotine pouches as sales soar in UK” in the Guardian

Nargiz Travis, MScPH and Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, DPhil

“Even more concerning is that in addition to the total nicotine content being high, they have a very high proportion of freebase nicotine, which facilitates faster delivery into the bloodstream. This makes them even more effective in delivering higher levels of nicotine compared to cigarettes.” — Nargiz Travis, MScPH (CAsToR Project Director, Georgetown University)

“A lot of the challenge in regulating in this space is recognising you have a reduced-risk product, but not a risk-free product. So how do we make sure it’s helping the people it can help, and isn’t harming the people who wouldn’t have otherwise used tobacco or nicotine?” — Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, DPhil (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts - Amherst and Co-Lead, CAsToR Policy Analysis and Dissemination (PAD) Core)

POSTED: Nov 12, 2025

“Why Is It So Hard for Older Adults to Quit Smoking?” in AARP Magazine

Rafael Meza, PhD

It can be difficult to implement policies and messaging that protect young people from e-cigarettes while also finding ways “to bring e-cigarettes into the arsenal to help people quit. The challenge has been, ‘How can we do those two things at the same time?’” says Rafael Meza, PhD.

POSTED: Aug 4, 2025

“Can Vaping Help You Quit Cigarettes? What Are The Risks?“ on NPR’s Science Friday

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, PhD

The harms of smoking cigarettes are pretty clear. Smoking causes cancer as well as heart and lung diseases, and it's the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. When it comes to vaping, or electronic cigarettes, the risks are a bit more tricky to parse, especially if you read media reports about them. The founders of Juul, the company that mainstreamed vaping in the early aughts, said they wanted to help people kick their smoking habits. But can vapes really help people quit? And how bad are they for you, really? And if you're addicted to vaping, what's the best way to stop? To answer those questions and more, Host Ira Flatow talks with one of the top researchers in the field, Dr. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

POSTED: Feb 10, 2025

Smoking cessation, prevention and screening result in considerable mortality decreases from five major cancers

Improvements in cancer prevention and screening have averted more deaths from five cancer types combined over the past 45 years than treatment advances, according to a modeling study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the CISNET consortium, including CAsToR members Meza, Jeon and Holford.

POSTED: Dec 9, 2024

“Seniors, You're Never Too Old to Quit Smoking, Study Finds“ in U.S. News

Thuy Le, PhD, David Mendez, PhD and Kenneth Warner, PhD

“We have seen a remarkable decline in young adult smoking over the past decade. However, rates among older adults who smoke have remained stagnant,” said Thuy Le, assistant research scientist of health management and policy, who along with David Mendez, professor of health management and policy, and Ken Warner, professor emeritus, of health management and policy, found that quitting smoking after age 65 will add at least eight years of life for nearly 10% of people.

POSTED: Oct 22, 2024

“Most Americans Are Quitting Smoking—Except For Those Over 65” in Time magazine

Rafael Meza, PhD

Public health campaigns and programs outlining the dangers of smoking aren’t really aimed at older adults, says Rafael Meza, an integrative oncologist at the BC Cancer Research Institute in Vancouver and the lead author of a new study on adult smoking. “In the U.S., smoking really has a generational pattern,” he says. Meza’s new analysis, published Dec. 1 in JAMA Health Forum, shows that while people ages 40 through 64 smoke the most, Americans 65 and above are picking up the habit in a way nobody else is. While the prevalence of regular smokers dropped to 15.2% down from 21.2% in a little over a decade for that middle-aged group, older adults saw an increase from 8.7% to 9.4% in the same time frame.

POSTED: Dec 7, 2023