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Many people, including health professionals, have assumed that e-cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes because they use heated liquid vapor (hence the term “vaping”) rather than burning tobacco leaves in a process that has been proved to be carcinogenic. But “safer” doesn’t mean “risk-free.” A troubling increase of acute lung disease among e-cigarette users across 25 states is making the sobering point that there is still a lot we don’t know about the health implications of vaping. (9/4)

The Trump administration has proposed a change in the way the federal government measures poverty. On the surface, this proposal may appear to be an innocuous, technical adjustment. It’s not. Instead, this change would dramatically reduce the number of people who qualify for vital basic assistance programs, including Medicaid, children’s health care and food assistance. To understand what is happening, it helps to remember how the official poverty measure was first created. (Sen. Bob Casey and Indivar Dutta-Gupta, 9/4)

Huge settlements by drug-making giants Johnson & Johnson and OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma will total billions of dollars when all is said and done.But whatever the amount, the families and friends of those who slipped into the maw of the opioid epidemic that has ravaged the nation will find little solace in the payouts. The more than 400,000 dead since 2000 will stay dead, and more than likely the deep-pocketed corporations will recover and have the whole matter in their rear-view mirrors. When an Oklahoma judge last week ordered a $572 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson, the company’s stock actually rose a bit the following day. (9/2)

Much of the medical progress in the past half-century has involved expensive, high-tech diagnostic tests and therapies. But it would be a mistake to gainsay the value of inexpensive, low-tech innovations. Consider the problem of falls, which are both a cause and effect of declining health in the elderly. They are the leading cause of injury-related visits to U.S. emergency rooms and of accidental deaths for Americans over 65. Preventing falls or reducing their impact would help millions of people and moderate health-care costs significantly. (Henry I. Miller and Shiv Sharma, 9/3)

Imagine your aunt has developed diabetes and you want her to get better. Medical science suggests that medicine might help, but you decide that the better strategy is to lock your aunt in a room and force her to eat only lettuce — even though she hates vegetables. No medication, no discussion of other options.Does this seem absurd? Illegal? It’s both of those, and no medical professional would advise it. But we are doing more or less the same to people who use drugs. (Leo Beletsky and Denise Tomasini-Joshi, 9/3)

The Constitution delegates no “abortion power” to the federal government and thus the regulation of abortions is clearly part of the residuary sovereignty of the states concerning the lives and liberties of the people. (William J. Watkins, Jr., 9/3)

As children throughout Massachusetts head back to school, they should be focused on learning — not whether they will get the measles. This week, we are filing a bill called the Community Immunity Act to protect children’s health by reducing the threat of preventable diseases. The Community Immunity Act will fix serious flaws in the state’s existing public health systems for immunizations and exemptions, with the goal of safeguarding not just the health of our youth, but also the health of their families, their teachers, our seniors, and everyone in the Commonwealth. (Becca Rausch and Paul Donato, 9/4)