Directors Corner

Dr. Schroeder's Final Director’s Corner

December 7, 2021

When we started the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center in Jan. 2003, I never thought I would stay so long as its director. This is my final Director’s Corner column, because in January, 2022, the talented tobacco control expert Pamela Ling, MD, Professor of Medicine at UCSF…

Special Announcement: Change of Plans at SCLC

October 12, 2021

In July, we had announced that Nancy Rigotti would be taking over as director of SCLC beginning January, 2022. Alas, that will not happen. The reasons are stated below by Dr. Rigotti:

“I am sorry to tell…

Collateral Damage: COVID-19 Stalls Progress on Smoking Cessation

March 23, 2021

A hidden but potentially disastrous consequence of the COVID-19 epidemic is its effect on smoking. Although the 2020 data on smoking prevalence have yet to be released, there is disturbing evidence that the impressive recent declines in adult and youth smoking may have…

Moving Forward In Spite Of It All

October 29, 2020

Like everyone else, the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at UCSF has had to adapt to new ways of doing our work. Working remotely has brought its set of challenges, and we were concerned that the press of attending to the Covid-19 epidemic would sideline smoking cessation…

Smoking, Covid-19, and Racism —Three Intersecting Epidemics

June 26, 2020

These are strange and disturbing times, as each of us confronts fundamental issues about health and our society. The three epidemics vary in how long they have been with us, how they cause harm, and how they could be remediated. The harms from smoking date back over one…

Director’s Corner Update - The Connection Between Smoking and the Coronavirus

April 10, 2020

As the nation wrestles with the coronavirus epidemic, it has become clear that there is a connection between smoking and the epidemic. It manifests in at least six ways.

First, those whose lungs have been damaged by smoking are more vulnerable to the serious lung…

Reflections on the Pandemic

March 12, 2020

Just as it looked like we had recovered from the EVALI epidemic, along comes the novel Coronavirus, which is probably the biggest social disrupter in my lifetime since World War II, and probably the most domestically threatening since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. We have…

Director’s Corner on 2020 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Cessation

February 3, 2020

The Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking Cessation is a typically massive (700 pages) and evidence-based document with multiple authors and reviewers. The first such report since 1990, it is a valuable compendium of the history, current status, controversies and challenges of…

2020 Director's Corner: Top 20 Successes and Challenges for Smoking Cessation

December 30, 2019

As an inveterate list maker, I can’t resist the opportunity to usher in the year 2020 with a list about smoking cessation. Below I enumerate my nominees for the top 20 successes that have helped promote smoking cessation, as well as the top 20 challenges facing smoking…