E-letter submitted to Tobacco Control

[Vocalek]

In "tobacco-related disease mortality among men who switched from cigarettes to spit tobacco" Tob Control 2007; 16: 22-28, Henley, et al compared mortality rates for smokers who switched to spit tobacco to the rates for those who quit all forms of tobacco. This is useful information. However, the fact that the number of smokers in the US has remained relatively unchanged for the past 20 years tells us that there are tens of millions of smokers who cannot or will not overcome their dependence on nicotine. Thus, it is vital for tobacco policy makers to establish viable harm-reduction plans. Was there mortality data collected on the group who continued smoking? If so, it would be very useful for the authors to publish a follow-up article that compares the mortality rates for switchers to the rates of those who continued smoking.

NOTE: The research was conducted under the auspices of the American Cancer Society. I'll bet you they DO have the data, and I will bet you that the mortality rates for the continuing smokers was vastly higher that for the switchers. Any takers?

 

[Vocalek]

They published it. There are also two earlier letters from Jonathan Foulds & Lars Ramston and Brad Rohu. You can read them all, as well as the abstract at Tobacco Control -- eLetters for Henley et al., 16 (1) 22-28

Interesting info in Rohu's letter on how the CDC is withholding important data.

 

[TheIllustratedMan]

Semi-related, figured here's as good as anywhere (since I think I originally posted in the SE v FDA thread and I don't want to clutter that one any more than it is):

I wrote the Attorney General of New York a couple of weeks ago, today I checked my mail for the first time in a while, and received a note from Richard Jurewicz, Associate Director for Correspondence, transcribed as follows:

August 20, 2009
>snip address<
Dear Mr. Dunn:

The Attorney General has asked me to thank you for your recent e-mail and for making us aware of your concerns regarding smoking. We appreciate your sharing your views about this important issue. We will certainly keep your comments in mind during any discussions we may have on this matter.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us and for sharing your views.
Sincerly,
RICHARD JUREWICZ
Associate Director of Correspondence

Horribly non-commital form letter, but at least it's signed in pen and has the seal of NY State at the top. Best I can hope is that they keep my email somewhere and if the topic comes up, they have some poor intern sift through all the letters in the same category for anything meaningful, and dredge mine out.

More likely they copied down the address, deleted it, and sent out their pat on the head.

Oh well.

-Nate

[EDIT] Just noticed that the postmark is the 26th... took them 6 days to mail it. How's that for efficiency? At least it's on recycled paper...

OK, I'll stop knocking the AG's office. I actually think he does a good job.

 

[yknotagain]

I lost all respect for the American Cancer Society many years ago when they buried a report study which showed cigar smokers had the LOWEST rate of cancer of all people - INCLUDING NON-SMOKERS! When you bury stats that don't coincide with your agenda you do no one any good and simply show yourselves as liars.

 

[robbiehatfield]

The problem with organizations such as the American Cancer Society is that they too grow like *cancer* and need a lot of financial support to sustain themselves. I suspect much of this support comes from extremists with agendas to forward and when THIS occurs, logic and good science is thrown to the wind. Withholding the truth to me is the same thing as lying.

Robbie

 

[kinabaloo]

The problem with organizations such as the American Cancer Society is that they too grow like *cancer* and need a lot of financial support to sustain themselves. I suspect much of this support comes from extremists with agendas to forward and when THIS occurs, logic and good science is thrown to the wind. Withholding the truth to me is the same thing as lying.

Robbie

We shall see if what many describe as the 'cancer industry' really care about health by how they respond with regard to vaping as the far safer alternative to smoking. Perhaps the symbiotic relationship will entail that they will not make serious moves to cut off their own-life blood; safer alternatives seem always to be stymied and no real inroads are made to the really harmful stuff, just gesturing.