Six leading public health and medical organizations today urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop the sale of new electronic cigarette products that have been illegally introduced in recent months without the agency’s prior review and authorization. These include numerous products similar to the Juul e-cigarettes that have become wildly popular with teens across the United States.

The U.S. isn’t doing enough to curb smoking for all Americans, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. The annual "State of Tobacco Control" report, which evaluates state and federal laws and policies to reduce tobacco use, gave the U.S. an A for its anti-tobacco mass media campaigns in 2017, but an F for both tobacco regulation and taxes.

Fewer U.S. middle and high school students are using tobacco products – but too many still do, according to a new survey published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products.

The adult smoking rate is at a historically low level, according to the 2017 National Health Interview Survey released recently by the CDC. The figures show that adult smoking rates decreased from 15.5 percent in 2016 to 13.9 percent in 2017 – numbers that “reflect enormous progress in fighting tobacco use and will yield tremendous benefit to lung health in this country,” according to Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO of the American Lung Association (ALA).

Tobacco companies were ordered last week to place warning statements about their products’ health effects on their websites and cigarette packages – the latest step in a court order they’ve been fighting for 17 years. Altria, its Philip Morris USA subsidiary and R.J. Reynolds have until Nov. 21, 2018 to publish “corrective statements” on five topics about which they had been found to deliberately deceive the public:

Small- to mid-size employers participating in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program increased their investment in evidence-based interventions to improve worker health, according to a study in the July Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Laurie Cluff, PhD, of RTI International and colleagues report an evaluation of the CDC’s National Healthy Worksite Program (NHWP).

Workers who smoke can cost their employers thousands of dollars per year more than their non-­‐ smoking counterparts, new research has found. The study found smoking to pose a substantial burden on employers through increased costs from lost productivity. The US researches say it would be in an employer’s best interest to support smoking cessation programs that facilitate quitting among employees.

Congress’ bid to cut billions from public health funding is raising the ire of the American Public Health Association (APHA), which is accusing the House of robbing “Peter to pay Paul” in its latest spending proposal. The Prevention and Public Health Fund – which makes up 12 percent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget -- would lose nearly $3 billion under the latest budget proposal by the House.

E-cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes, but they are not harmless, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine (NAS), Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes. The report acknowledges continuing concerns with the harms associated with e-cigarettes, particularly as they relate to youth, finding an association between the use of e-cigarettes by youth and the eventual use of combustible tobacco cigarettes.

Cigarette smoking among U.S. adults over 18 decreased from 20.9 percent in 2005 to 15.5 percent in 2016 - yet nearly 38 million American adults smoke cigarettes in 2016, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).