It was an era in which we became accustomed to daily death tolls broadcast on TV; work, school, and play shifted to virtual space; and masks served as both a life-saving accessory and confounding controversy. On many fronts, the era was marked by despair, not only from the virus proper, but also from the isolation […]

In a recent article on the risk factors and perceptions of e-cigarettes in South Africa, researchers led by Mageshree Naidoo concluded that e-cigarettes could cause harm to both users and non-users, and public health would be improved if these products were not available. This conclusion ignores the growing scientific evidence that e-cigarettes are less harmful […]

Tobacco smoking is the world’s leading cause of preventable death and disease, and quitting smoking can produce considerable and immediate health benefits. Most smokers who want to quit tend to do so without assistance, but some use prescription medication or nicotine replacement therapies. Initial efforts using these methods are often unsuccessful. In fact, approximately half […]

More than 1.3 billion people use tobacco around the world, and even though more than 8 million people die each year from tobacco-related diseases, traditional combustible cigarettes are still the most common form of nicotine consumption in the world. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly believe that nicotine is responsible for smoking-related cancers and other illnesses. However, […]

When I studied epidemiology in the 1980s, Apartheid policies were still in effect in my home country, South Africa. At the time, many in the field believed that their roles transcended the narrow confines of epidemiology’s standard definition. That is, we wanted to do more than simply describe race, class and sex-based differences across metrics […]