While e-cigarettes have the potential to promote smoking cessation, their real-world impact is uncertain. In this cohort, dual users were more likely to quit smoking than cigarette-only users, but the overall impact was small because most dual users returned to cigarette-only use.
AUTHORS: Fatema Shafie-Khorassani, Megan E Piper, Douglas E Jorenby, Timothy B Baker, Neal L Benowitz, Todd Hayes-Birchler, Rafael Meza, Andrew F Brouwer JOURNAL: Nicotine & Tobacco Research
POSTED: Fri Sep 09, 2022
“Targeted menthol cigarette ads helped lead to high Black usage. Should they be banned?”
David Mendez, a lead author of the Michigan study and a health management and policy professor at the university, said menthol cigarettes reduce the irritation and harshness of smoking through their smooth, minty flavor profile. Because the cigarette user does not cough or feel the less healthy aspects of smoking, they are less inclined to quit, he said. Menthol also works with nicotine to enhance nicotine's addictive effects. Banning menthol will save thousands of lives, Mendez said. “This is the closest we have been,“ Mendez said of the proposed prohibition.
POSTED: Mon Aug 8, 2022
Compared to non-use, exclusive cigarette use was associated with an increased risk of self-reported incident diagnosed cardiovascular disease over a five-year period, while ENDS use was not associated with a statistically significant increase in the outcomes.
AUTHORS: Jana L Hirschtick, Steven Cook, Akash Patel, Geoffrey D Barnes, Douglas Arenberg, Irina Bondarenko, David T Levy, Jihyoun Jeon, Evelyn Jimenez Mendoza, Rafael Meza, Nancy L Fleischer JOURNAL: Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
POSTED: Thu Aug 04, 2022
With the US Food and Drug Administration recently proposing to implement a ban on menthol cigarettes, it is critical to estimate the potential public health effects of such a ban. With high rates of menthol cigarette use and important smoking-related health disparity implications, the impact of the ban on the non-Hispanic black (NHB) population merits strong consideration.
AUTHORS: Mona Issabakhsh, Rafael Meza, Yameng Li, Zhe Yuan, Luz Maria Sanchez-Romero, David T Levy JOURNAL: Tobacco Control
POSTED: Wed Jun 15, 2022
The FDA has opened the public comment period for the agency’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. Epidemiology and global health professor Rafael Meza studies data modeling in disease prevention and cancer risk. David Mendez, who studies smoking cessation and tobacco control policies, is an associate professor of health management and policy. These University of Michigan researchers found that, in a 38-year period, African Americans suffered most of the harmful effects of menthol cigarettes. Now the researchers have developed a model to simulate the possible benefits of the menthol ban, based on studies of population trends in tobacco use. As experts on the behavioral and public health aspects of smoking, they explain the role of menthol in smoking-related illness and death.
POSTED: Wed May 18, 2022
CAsToR investigator Cliff Douglas discusses the proposed FDA menthol ban in MedPage
“The premature demand that menthol be banned in all tobacco products, if implemented, risks handing almost the entire tobacco marketplace over to cigarettes, which kill half of long-term users. Science has demonstrated that a variety of noncombustible products offer reduced-risk alternatives for adult smokers who are either unable or unwilling to quit using nicotine completely. These range from e-cigarettes and oral nicotine lozenges and pouches to such products as a very low-nitrosamine smokeless tobacco called snus. Research to date suggests that retaining menthol in some or perhaps all of them could help adults quit smoking.” — Clifford E. Douglas, JD (Director, Tobacco Research Network; Faculty, University of Michigan School of Public Health)
POSTED: Wed May 04, 2022
For many years, national surveys have shown a consistently disproportionately high prevalence of menthol smokers among African Americans compared with the general population. However, to our knowledge, no prior study has quantified the harm that menthol smoking has caused on that population. In this work, we estimate the public health harm that menthol cigarettes have caused to the African American community over the last four decades.
AUTHORS: David Mendez, PhD; Thuy Le, PhD JOURNAL: Tobacco Control
COMMENTARY: “What more evidence is needed? Remove menthol cigarettes from the marketplace—now”
POSTED: Fri Sep 17, 2021
Introduction: A better understanding of how menthol cigarette flavoring and ENDS impact smoking initiation, cessation, and transitions between tobacco products could help elucidate the potential impact of a U.S. menthol ban on combustible tobacco products. Conclusions: Sociodemographic differences in product transitions should be accounted for when estimating the potential impact of a menthol ban.
AUTHORS: Andrew F. Brouwer PhD, Jihyoun Jeon PhD, Steven F. Cook PhD, Bukola Usidame PhD, Jana L. Hirschtick PhD, Evelyn Jimenez-Mendoza MSc, Ritesh Mistry PhD, Nancy L. Fleischer PhD, Theodore R. Holford PhD, David Mendez PhD, David T. Levy PhD, Rafael Meza PhD JOURNAL: American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
POSTED: Wed Nov 03, 2021
What are the estimated population health outcomes associated with implementation of graphic health warnings on cigarette packages in 2022 and with delayed implementation of the warnings since 2012, as originally planned, in the US? In this decision analytical model using simulation modeling of smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable mortality in the US from 2012 to 2100, graphic health warnings, if implemented from 2022 to 2100, would be associated with 539,000 smoking-attributable deaths averted and 7.9 million life-years gained, and if implemented in 2012, with 718 000 deaths averted and 11.2 million life-years gained through 2100.
AUTHORS: Jamie Tam, PhD; Jihyoun Jeon, PhD; James F. Thrasher, PhD; David Hammond, PhD; Theodore R. Holford, PhD; David T. Levy, PhD; Rafael Meza, PhD JOURNAL: Preventive medicine.
POSTED: Mon Sep 27, 2021
CAsToR Junior Investigator Jamie Tam, PhD, MPH describes her research interests and academic journey in tobacco regulatory science and simulation modeling.
POSTED: Fri May 27, 2022
