EVENT: E-Cigarettes: The Tectonic Shift in Nicotine and Tobacco Consumption—October 19

NYU Conference Featuring FDA’s Mitch Zeller and Iowa AG Tom Miller to Discuss Evidence Behind E-Cigarettes and Whether Vaping Presents an Opportunity or Threat to Saving Lives

NYU College of Dentistry, NYU College of Global Public Health, and NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing will host “E-Cigarettes: The Tectonic Shift in Nicotine and Tobacco Consumption,” a one-day conference exploring research on the safety and promise of e-cigarettes as an alternative to tobacco products.

The event, which will gather researchers, policymakers, and health professionals to discuss this important public health issue, will take place on October 19 from 8:30 am to 3 pm at NYU School of Law’s Greenberg Lounge (40 Washington Square South, New York, NY).

E-cigarettes—a diverse group of products that heat liquid, usually including nicotine, to be inhaled or vaped—have grown increasingly popular in recent years, with millions of American users. A rapidly changing e-cigarette marketplace has raised health and regulatory questions about the future of e-cigarettes.

Earlier this year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report concluding that while e-cigarettes are not without health risks, they are less harmful than cigarettes because they contain fewer and lower levels of toxins. However, the long-term public health effects of e-cigarettes are unclear. While vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes and e-cigarettes can help save smokers’ lives if they switch, recent increases in e-cigarette use by youth pose a challenge on how best to balance saving the lives of smokers against fears of youth initiation.

The NYU event’s keynote speaker will be Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Zeller will discuss the FDA’s comprehensive regulatory plan on nicotine and tobacco, the “continuum of risk” along which more and less harmful nicotine and tobacco products fall, making products less addictive, and recent efforts to address youth e-cigarette use.

Following Zeller, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a longtime tobacco control champion, will speak. Miller helped to negotiate the 1998 multistate Master Settlement Agreement that resulted in the tobacco industry paying billions of dollars and changing the way it conducts business, and more recently has turned his attention to e-cigarettes.

The event will also include panel discussions with leading voices on tobacco and health, including Ken Warner of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and researchers from NYU and around the world. The panels will look at e-cigarettes in the U.S. and globally, exploring different perspectives such as e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool, the effect of e-cigarette aerosol mixtures on oral health, and youth adoption of e-cigarettes.

For more information and to register, please visit the event’s website. Reporters interested in attending should contact Rachel Harrison at rachel.harrison@nyu.edu.

About NYU College of Dentistry
Founded in 1865, NYU Dentistry is the third oldest and the largest dental school in the US, educating nearly 10 percent of all of our nation’s dentists. NYU Dentistry has a significant global reach with a highly diverse student body. It is the home of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Quality-improvement, Evidence-based Dentistry. WHO Collaborating Centers are designated by the Director-General of WHO as part of an inter-institutional collaborative network of centers worldwide. For more, visit: http://dental.nyu.edu/

About NYU College of Global Public Health
At the NYU College of Global Public Health (NYU GPH), we are preparing the next generation of public health pioneers with the critical thinking skills, acumen, and entrepreneurial approaches necessary to reinvent the public health paradigm. Devoted to employing a nontraditional, inter-disciplinary model, NYU GPH aims to improve health worldwide through a unique blend of global public health studies, research, and practice. The College is located in the heart of New York City and extends to NYU's global network on six continents. Innovation is at the core of our ambitious approach, thinking and teaching. For more, visit: http://publichealth.nyu.edu/

About NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing
NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a bachelor of science with a major in nursing, a master of science, post-master' s certificate programs, a doctor of nursing practice degree, and a doctor of philosophy in research theory and development.