Lives are lost to smoking every day. Yet, the tobacco epidemic rarely earns widespread attention—particularly amidst more acute crises like COVID-19. On World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) we strive to reinvigorate the fight against smoking, and to stress the uniquely devastating effects of tobacco on global health. Launched in 1988 under the auspices of the […]

On May 6, 2020, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) published an article by Brian Erkkila, Patricia Kovacevic, and Derek Yach titled, “Restricting Flavors in ENDS Could Have Repercussions Beyond Youths’ Use.” The authors review recent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory guidance on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including plans to restrict […]

The 2019 EVALI ‘Misinfodemic’ Part One (of three):  Searching for ‘patient zero’ The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World recently commissioned an independent analysis of media coverage before, during, and after the 2019 US EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury) outbreak. Our analysis covered over 18,000 news stories published by top-tier media outlets in […]

A recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) explores how perceptions of e-cigarette risk changed during the e-cigarette, or vaping, product-use associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak in the United States. This post explores available data regarding this topic. (To learn more about general conclusions from this data, please see Ayda […]

An increasing number of economic studies show that how smokers perceive e-cigarette harm can influence their behavior when they consider quitting or switching from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes. Risk perception can also foreshadow young smokers’ behavior when choosing between combustible cigarettes or e-cigarettes, neither, or both. The link between risk perception and smoking behavior is […]