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  • Study: Villainizing Vape is Backfiring

    Study: Villainizing Vape is Backfiring

    A study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, conducted by Brighton and Sussex Medical School, revealed that the constant vilification of all nicotine products so users will stop smoking and using “tobacco products” altogether appears to be backfiring. The study said that while many smokers are looking for less harmful alternatives, “inappropriate misinformation” about products such as e-cigarettes is keeping them from switching.

    In the findings, 85% of the smokers in England, where the study was conducted, had an incorrect understanding of vaping’s risks. Whereas vaping is not risk-free, it is less harmful than traditional smoking, yet some believe it’s as much or even more harmful as combustible cigarettes.

    “This misunderstanding is a big obstacle in the path of quitting cigarettes,” wrote the Hindustan Times. “They don’t see vaping, as a viable alternative to cigarettes.

    “To overcome any addictive habit or even go to the milder alternatives to gradually quit the habit, a strong motivation is required. With the widespread misunderstanding, smokers don’t feel motivated enough to switch. As per them if it’s as bad as traditional smoking, they see little point in making the switch.”

  • Study: Youth More Vulnerable to Nicotine Addiction

    Study: Youth More Vulnerable to Nicotine Addiction

    People in their late teens and early 20s may be more susceptible to nicotine addiction than middle-aged adults, according to a new study in mice from researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health. The results provide evidence that the effects of drugs on the body—both medication and misused substances—change over the lifespan in ways that clinicians and researchers need to consider when developing and prescribing treatments, the researchers said.

    Doctoral student Carlos Novoa and his adviser, Thomas Gould, Jean Phillips Shibley Professor of Biobehavioral Health and head of the department, led the study. The researchers demonstrated that nicotine lowers the body temperature of young adult mice more quickly and reduces their movement more significantly than middle-aged mice. These results indicate how the effects of nicotine change as people age, according to the research team.

    “Sometimes, people think of development as something that occurs until we reach a certain age—like 18 or 25—and then stops,” Gould said. “But people continue to develop and change across their entire lifespan, and this affects how our bodies respond to medications and other chemicals, including nicotine. This research adds one piece to the puzzle of all the factors—age, biological sex, genetics, and many others—needed to create effective medical treatments and policies for all people.”

    The results of the study appear in Behavioral Pharmacology.

  • Study Links ADHD and Nicotine Use

    Study Links ADHD and Nicotine Use

    A recent JAMA Network Open study established a “robust association between ADHD symptoms and newer forms of nicotine and tobacco use. This finding emphasizes the importance of early ADHD diagnosis and effective management strategies to reduce the risk of future nicotine and tobacco use among U.S. youths.”

    Previous studies established a link between ADHD and tobacco use, however, it remains unclear how the widespread availability of electronic nicotine delivery systems like e-cigarettes may have exacerbated this issue. In 2018, e-cigarette use surpassed cigarette smoking and has continued to increase to become the second most prevalent substance use behavior.

    ADHD, which is characterized by functional impairment, hyperactivity, and/or inattention, is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents in the United States. In fact, current estimates indicate that one in nine children and adolescents in the U.S. received an ADHD diagnosis in their lifetime.

  • Study: Controlling Mildew, Improving Tobacco Storage

    Study: Controlling Mildew, Improving Tobacco Storage

    Tobacco mildew is a common fungal disease of great economic importance as it causes leaf rot during tobacco storage, seriously impacting the yield and quality of tobacco. Scientists from the College of Tobacco Science at Henan Agricultural University in China led a study that investigated the inhibitory effect of endophytic bacteria on fungal pathogens as it pertains to tobacco mildew biocontrol and identified bacterial biocontrol resources for controlling tobacco mildew and improving tobacco quality.

    In the study, three strains of dominant tobacco mildew pathogens were isolated from the surface of diseased tobacco leaves and used as pathogens to select five antagonistic bacterial strains with good inhibitory effects against tobacco mildew disease.

    The results revealed that the antagonistic mechanism of ZH-2 against pathogens was the production of cell wall hydrolases. Fermentation results showed that strain ZH-2 affected the chemical composition and improved the volatile flavor content and quality of tobacco leaves. Therefore, strain ZH-2 can be used as a potential biocontrol agent for the control of tobacco mildew disease and the improvement of tobacco quality during storage.

  • Study: Physically Activity in Children Diminishes Smoking Chances

    Study: Physically Activity in Children Diminishes Smoking Chances

    A new study published in the Journal of Behaviour Research and Therapy suggests people are less likely to initiate tobacco smoking if they engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from childhood. Universities from Bristol and Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland followed more than 2,500 children from the age of 11 until they were 24 and found that 0.6% of those who engaged in MPVAs began smoking by age 13, compared to 1.5% who began smoking that did not engage in activity. The study thus concludes MVPA reduces the risk of initiating tobacco smoking by 60% for 13-year-olds.

    The study was the largest and the longest follow-up of accelerometer-based MVPA and smoking behavior of young people in history. Physical activity intervention studies have reported reduced smoking rates among adults; however, physical activity studies in preventing smoking in children and adolescents have been inconclusive due to short study durations, small population sizes, and lack of accelerometer-measured physical activity data.

    “Stopping smoking in adulthood is good but late since a residual long-term risk of heart disease for the next thirty years still exists,” said Andrew Agbaje, physician and associate professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Child Health at the University of Eastern Finland. “Thus, preventing childhood smoking initiation is critical to lifelong health and these findings may be extrapolated to vaping and electronic cigarette use in teenagers since the same active ingredient in both smoke and smokeless tobacco is nicotine.”

    The study also found that the prevalence of smoking at ages 13, 15, and 24 years was 1.5%, 13.5%, and 26.6%, respectively.

  • Study: Airborne Ultrasound Damages Tobacco  

    Study: Airborne Ultrasound Damages Tobacco  

    Ultrasound is a powerful tool with diverse applications in medical diagnostics (diagnostic sonography), therapeutics (treatment of soft tissue ailments), industry (cleaning, welding, cutting, shaping, separating, mixing, etc.), and agriculture. Airborne power ultrasound is a green technology with significant potential for food and environmental applications. For example, the exposure of soybean seeds to the airborne ultrasound increased water uptake without altering the morphology and the wettability of the seed coat; the implication of ultrasound increased the yield rate constant for the ultrasound extraction of saponins from alfalfa leaves almost two times more than that of routine heat-reflux methods; and ultrasound has been widely used to reduce the energy consumption and drying time of herbs.

    A recent study by the Department of Plant Biology at Tarbiat Modares University in Iran was conducted to elucidate the physiological responses of plant cells to airborne ultrasound in tobacco plants. Homogeneous suspension-cultured tobacco cells were subjected to airborne ultrasound at 24 kHz in two pulsatile and continuous modes for 10 and 20 seconds. The study’s outcome revealed that airborne ultrasound triggered the production of H2O2, elevated internal calcium concentration, and reduced antioxidant capacity upon cavitation. Alteration of covalently bound peroxidase and other wall-modifying enzyme activities was accompanied by reduced cellulose, pectin, and hemicellulose B but increased lignin and hemicellulose A. The biomass and viability of tobacco cells were also significantly decreased by airborne ultrasound, which ultimately resulted in programmed cell death and secondary necrosis. The results highlight the potential risks of even short-time exposure to the airborne ultrasound on plant physiology and cell wall chemical composition raising significant concerns about its implications.

    In conclusion, even short exposures to ultrasound can be damaging to tobacco plants, meaning growers should evaluate sound pollution effects on the plant’s living status. Various machines act as sources of airborne ultrasound, including high-frequency cutting tools, ultrasonic cleaners, welding equipment, and some laboratory and medical instruments such as fans, compressors, air handling units, transformers, high-voltage power lines, and electrical discharge machining.

  • Flavor Bans Boost Combustible Sales

    Flavor Bans Boost Combustible Sales

    Image: DoraZett

    A new study has found that flavor bans boost sales of traditional combustible cigarettes. The study, E-Cigarette Flavor Restrictions’ Effects on Tobacco Product Sales, concluded that restrictions on the sale of flavored nicotine vaping products could lead to significant increases in traditional cigarette sales.

    Given that combustible cigarettes are widely recognized as more harmful than vaping, the study’s findings raise pressing questions about the public health implications of such policies, according to a release from the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA). The group “urges Canadian governments to review the study’s findings and ensure that vapor product regulations are in line with harm reduction and Canada’s Drugs and Substances Strategy.”

    Key highlights from the study include:

    Substitution to cigarettes: For every 1 fewer 0.7 mL pod sold due to flavor restrictions, there’s an increase of 15 additional cigarettes purchased.

    Rise in cigarette sales over time: While the short-term effects are less clear, the long-term correlation between vaping flavor policies and a surge in cigarette sales is robust. This surge occurs especially when such policies have been in place for a year or more.

    Young population at risk: The relation between vaping flavor restrictions and increased cigarette sales isn’t limited to a particular age group. Alarmingly, there’s also a surge in sales for cigarette brands popular among underage youth.

    The research firmly underscores the unintended consequences of restricting flavored product sales, according to the CVA. While the research indicated that these policies do achieve their goal of reducing flavored product use, they inadvertently boost the sales of traditional cigarettes across all age groups.

    Given the stark difference in health risks between cigarettes and vaping, the study contends that the overall health benefits of such policies may be minimal or even potentially harmful in the broader perspective.

  • Study: E-Cigs Help Pregnant Smokers Quit

    Study: E-Cigs Help Pregnant Smokers Quit

    Photo: seksanwangjaisuk | Adobe Stock

    New research reveals that e-cigarettes are as safe to use as nicotine patches for pregnant smokers trying to quit and may be a more effective tool.

    Quitting smoking is difficult. For smokers who become pregnant, not quitting smoking in pregnancy can increase the risk of outcomes including premature birth, miscarriage and the baby having a low birth weight, according to a story in The Guardian.

    “Many pregnant smokers find it difficult to quit with current stop smoking medications, including nicotine patches, and continue to smoke throughout pregnancy,” said Francesca Pesola, an author of the new study who is based at Queen Mary University in London.

    While e-cigarettes have been found to be more effective than nicotine patches in helping people quit, Pesola noted there has been little research into their effectiveness or safety among pregnant women despite an increase in use by expectant mothers.

    Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, Pesola and colleagues describe how they randomly assigned 569 pregnant smokers to use e-cigarettes and 571 to use nicotine patches—a form of nicotine-replacement therapy that can already be prescribed during pregnancy. The participants were, on average, 15.7 weeks pregnant and smoked 10 cigarettes a day.

    Only 40 percent of those given e-cigarettes and 23 percent of those given patches used their allocated product for at least four weeks. However, both uptake and duration of use during the study was higher among those given e-cigarettes.

    After excluding participants who self-reported not smoking but who used nicotine products other than those allocated to them—for example, those in the group given patches who used e-cigarettes—the team found those given e-cigarettes appeared to do better at quitting smoking.