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  • Study: Menthol Cigarettes Linked to Higher Death Risk

    Study: Menthol Cigarettes Linked to Higher Death Risk

    A study recently published in Tobacco Control journal says menthol cigarette smokers had a higher risk of dying from any health cause compared to non-menthol cigarette smokers, in what the researchers claim is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind.

    The report said, among former smokers, those who smoked menthol cigarettes showed:

    • 12% higher risk of death from all causes
    • 16% higher risk from cardiovascular diseases
    • 13% higher risk from coronary artery disease
    •  43% higher risk from other heart diseases

    “Mortality risks were shown to be especially high for individuals who quit smoking or smoked 40 or more menthol cigarettes per day,” the study said. “In addition, Black Americans who currently smoke menthol cigarettes face an 88% elevated risk of mortality from some heart diseases compared to those smoking non-menthol cigarettes.”

    While smoking rates have declined overall, the study said menthol cigarettes continue to rise in popularity with Blacks, women, and youth. “Menthol cigarettes represented 36% of the market among major manufacturers in 2022—the highest percentage since reporting began in 1963.” The popularity of menthol extends beyond cigarettes, with vape and flavored nicotine pouches also available.

    For the report, researchers followed nearly a million people from the Cancer Prevention Study II, tracking their health over six years. Of the participants, 73,486 smoked menthol cigarettes and 281,680 smoked non-menthol cigarettes. In that time, 4,071 menthol smokers and 20,738 non-menthol smokers died.

  • Study: Students Vaping in South Africa 

    Study: Students Vaping in South Africa 

    Researchers from the University of Cape Town found that 16.8% of high school students in South Africa used e-cigarettes. The study focused on schools in major cities and included 25,000 students from 52 schools in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces. 

    Students who vaped were asked further questions about the habit, with researchers estimating 61% of the teen vapers could be seriously addicted to nicotine. They also found that household income was not a factor in the use of vape products. When asked why they began vaping, more than half cited social influences and the desire to fit in.

    Published in The Conversation, the study also found that 5% on the students used cannabis and 2% smoked cigarettes.

  • Study: Young Dutch Vapers Unaware of Nicotine

    Study: Young Dutch Vapers Unaware of Nicotine

    A study in the Netherlands found that nearly 40 percent of young people who vape monthly do not know if their e-cigarette contains nicotine, according to a report from the Trimbos Institute. The findings, which expand on 2023 data, highlight a significant gap in awareness about the potentially addictive substance.

    “Young people seem less aware of the nicotine in vapes. This is a serious issue because once addicted, it is very difficult to quit,” said Esther Croes, a tobacco expert at the Trimbos Institute. She added that nicotine use can disrupt brain development in the long term.

    The report surveyed Dutch youth between the ages of 12 and 25 who vape at least once a month. While many said they continue vaping because they enjoy it, nearly 40 percent admitted they did not know whether their device contained nicotine. Additionally, more than two-thirds of respondents said they do not feel addicted.

    According to NL Times, data shows that young people feel more addicted to traditional cigarettes than to vapes. Among those who vape monthly, only 28 percent reported feeling addicted, compared to 50 percent of cigarette smokers. Despite these figures, addiction experts warn that nicotine dependence may develop gradually, and that young people may underestimate the difficulty of quitting.

    According to the study, many respondents cited flavors as their main reason for starting. Social influence and curiosity were also key factors.

  • Study: Vaping Does Not Help Smokers Quit

    Study: Vaping Does Not Help Smokers Quit

    E-cigarettes do not increase smoking cessation and are associated with reduced tobacco abstinence, says researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and Moores Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego. The study, among smokers in the U.S. and published March 5 in JAMA, “refutes the common misperception among tobacco users and e-cigarette proponents” that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking.

    “Most smokers think vaping will help you quit smoking,” John P. Pierce, Ph.D., a distinguished professor at the school and study’s co-author said. “However, this belief is not supported by science to date. While some researchers have suggested that smokers who switch to daily vaping will be more successful in quitting smoking, we studied quitting success among both daily and non-daily vapers and came up with a quite definitive answer.”

    The study analyzed data from 6,000 U.S. smokers from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. There were 943 smokers who also vaped and by matching and comparing these to similar smokers who didn’t vape, they found smoking cessation was 4.1% lower among smokers who vaped daily and 5.3% lower among smokers who vaped occasionally.

    Researchers said that while e-cigarettes don’t have the same health consequences as smoking, they are not harmless.

    “The adverse health effects of cigarette smoking become obvious after people have smoked for 20 years,” said Pierce. “While vapes generally don’t contain the same harmful chemicals as cigarette smoke, they have other risks, and we just don’t yet know what the health consequences of vaping over 20 to 30 years will be.”

    This study was supported by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of the University of California Office of the President.

  • 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.