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Electronic cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, but they aren’t safe. There’s evidence they can damage the lungs, and they’re also a path to nicotine addiction. Last year the percentage of teenagers using nicotine grew at the fastest rate ever recorded for an addictive substance, according to a survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The same organization also published a survey that found that children who use e-cigs are more likely to become long-term smokers of regular cigarettes than children who never use them. Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have a tough job. How can they preserve e-cigarettes as a tool to help adult smokers while snuffing out the teen smoking epidemic? The answer depends on recognizing the differences between types of e-cigs. (Former FDA administrator Scott Gottlieb, 6/24)

The threat from measles is severe and getting worse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of U.S. measles cases in the first five months of 2019 surpassed the annual total in each of the previous 25 years. The cause of this surge is no mystery. Too many parents are failing to vaccinate their children. New approaches are required to help parents recognize the necessity of protecting their children from this dangerous and highly infectious disease. Officials understand the urgency of getting more children vaccinated, but anti-vaccine propaganda has convinced some parents to seek medical exemptions from vaccination, even where not warranted. Doctors who enable this behavior put entire communities at risk. (6/25)

Every time there is another mass shooting, calls begin anew for a ban on private ownership of semiautomatic rifles. But, sadly, the time has passed when such an approach would make a decisive difference in the United States. In an era of declining hunting, firearms manufacturers have increasingly transformed their product lines to feed gun buyers’ desires for military-style weaponry. Even if Congress could agree to pass a new law banning semiautomatic rifles – a big if in today’s polarized climate – a wide range of combat weapons would still be legally available, along with accessories to make them deadlier. (6/25)

Getting to the hospital quickly is essential for treating heart attacks, strokes, and other medical emergencies. You might guess that spouses or family members would be best at reacting quickly. You’d be wrong.My team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital studies social networks. Few humans are solitary creatures; most of us are embedded in one or more social networks that include family members, friends, and acquaintances. We believe that these networks are an under-recognized factor in illness and health, and could be harnessed to improve our lives. (Amar Dhand, 6/25)

The nutrition community doesn’t like diet soda. Of all the groups that make dietary recommendations, I can’t find one that lends full-throated support. “Limit low-calorie sodas,” says the American Heart Association, and “stick to water.” The Center for Science in the Public Interest says it’s “best to avoid” artificial sweeteners. The Canadian dietary guidelines discourage them. The U.S. dietary guidelines are decidedly meh. Although added sugar is a top public health concern, diet soda is consistently met with something between distrust and hostility. Dig into the research, though, and you don’t find a lot of substance. The hostility-to-evidence ratio is way out of whack. What gives? (Tamar Haspel, 6/24)

Why should a 16-year-old girl be able to get an abortion but not a tattoo without parental consent? When the late Tim Russert famously posed that question to Democrat Shannon O’Brien during a 2002 gubernatorial debate, her quip — “Would you like to see my tattoo?” — was not well received. Beyond abortion rights activists, neither was her support for lowering the age a young woman could get an abortion without parental consent, from 18 to 16. In contrast, Republican Mitt Romney promised to “preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose,” by keeping state laws as they were. With that assurance, Romney was able to close the gender gap and go on to defeat O’Brien — and then, as a presidential candidate, go on to embrace the antiabortion cause. (Joan Vennochi, 6/24)

Austin will no longer use nuisance laws as a hammer against people who have no safe place to sleep at night. The changes to three ordinances, which the City Council approved around 2 a.m. Friday after hours of impassioned testimony, mean people won’t be cited for camping outside, sitting on the sidewalk or asking for money, as long as their activities don’t endanger anyone. (6/21)

Gov. Mike DeWine’s decision to level unprecedented state attention on Cuyahoga County’s troubled jails -- while also adding inspection staff, improving the transparency of inspections and otherwise ramping up the state’s ability to clamp down on deficient local jails in Ohio -- should be applauded. Seven months after a U.S. Marshals report found inhumane conditions at the Cuyahoga County jails, reforms still appear to be moving at a snail’s pace, despite some notable improvements. (6/23)