04 May 2015 Goal: Reduce Harm from Tobacco Use; Jeff Stier to Speak at Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association 2015 Annual Conference
Washington, D.C. – Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, will give a talk on “Making Policy Decisions” at the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association’s (SFATA) 2015 annual conference, “Revolution to Evolution: Next Steps for the Vapor Industry,” being held at the Hilton Orrington Evanston in Evanston, IL from May 4-5, 2015.
Stier, who directs the National Center’s Risk Analysis Division, also will moderate a panel on strategies and goals for advancing harm reduction after the FDA announces its new regulations on e-cigarettes, which is expected sometime next month.
“Reducing the harm associated with tobacco use is a legitimate aim for health agencies, policymakers, regulators and the tobacco industry alike,” said Stier. “What is needed to determine how best to achieve this is good quality science, designed, conducted and analyzed using well-established scientific standards, as well as the discipline to distinguish between association and causation. Poorly-executed studies run the risk of misinforming both the public and governments about how best to reduce the harm from tobacco use. They can undermine regulatory aims and do more harm than good.”
“Poor science,” Stier added, “undermines the public health community’s most valuable asset: its reputation for adherence to strong scientific principles.”
The headline speaker for the conference is Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.
A complete list of scheduled panels and presentations over the two-day conference, as well as registration information, can be found by visiting http://sfata.org/may2015/.
New York City-based Jeff Stier is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C. and heads its Risk Analysis Division. Stier has addressed health policy on CNBC, CNN, the Fox News Channel and MSNBC, as well as network newscasts. Stier’s National Center op-eds have been published in top outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, Newsday, Forbes, the Washington Examiner and National Review Online. Stier also frequently discusses risk issues on Twitter at @JeffaStier.
On the topic of e-cigarettes, Stier has testified at FDA scientific meetings, met with members of Congress and their staff, met with OMB/OIRA officials, and submitted testimony to state legislative hearings. He has testified about e-cigarette regulation before state legislatures and city councils in California, New York, Rhode Island, Oklahoma and elsewhere, and been published about the topic in the New York Post, Detroit News, Huffington Post, Des Moines Register and elsewhere.
Founded in 2012 and with more than 420 members, the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association is the largest trade association in the vapor products industry. For more information, visit SFATA.org or follow @sfataorg on Twitter.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations, and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors. Sign up for free issue alerts here or follow on Twitter at @NationalCenter.
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