In a closely watched election contest, San Francisco voters have upheld a first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products, overwhelmingly rejecting an $11.6 million campaign by R.J. Reynolds to scuttle the law. San Francisco officials last June approved the ban but a petition drive funded by Reynolds, the maker of the top-selling menthol brand, Newport, forced the issue onto yesterday’s ballot.

OSHA releases its spring regulatory agenda, more tobacco warnings rolled out and the effects of climate change on health were among the top safety and health stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

They look like flash drives (and can be charged on the USB port of a computer), come in sweet flavors like mango and fruit medley, and oh, yes – they deliver a strong dose of nicotine. Their popularity among American middle and high schoolers is raising alarm among public health and medical organizations, six of whom sent a letter to the FDA yesterday calling for strong and immediate action on the teen use of Juul e-cigarettes.

Seven public health and medical groups, and several individual pediatricians, filed suit today in federal court in Maryland challenging a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision that allows electronic cigarettes and cigars – including candy-flavored products that appeal to kids – to stay on the market for years without being reviewed by the agency.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking steps that may exempt premium cigars from tobacco regulation – a move that is angering the American Heart Association. By asking for more information about the high end cigars, the AHA’s CEO Nancy Brown said the FDA is “sending mixed messages on tobacco regulation.”

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.

The Trump administration’s top health official resigned today after revelations surfaced that she bought stock in a tobacco company one month into her tenure as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – an agency whose responsibilities include reducing tobacco use among Americans.

Tobacco use among U.S. military veterans is higher among non-veterans for males and females across all age groups, except males ages 50 years and older, according to data published recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Three in 10 U.S. military veterans used some form of tobacco product during 2010–2015.

The cancer death rate dropped 1.7% from 2014 to 2015, continuing a drop that began in 1991 and has reached 26%, resulting in nearly 2.4 million fewer cancer deaths during that time. The data is reported in Cancer Statistics 2018, the American Cancer Society’s comprehensive annual report on cancer incidence, mortality, and survival.

While opioid overdose rates remain high among adults, American teens are misusing opioid pain medications less than they did a decade ago. That’s the good news from the 2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in schools nationwide. The bad news? More kids are “vaping” – and they’re not really sure what’s in that mist that they’re inhaling.