Better than cigarettes?

Anti-smoking campaigners are worried about a potential uptick in youth vaping after the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to greenlight menthol e-cigarettes for the first time. The FDA claimed data provided by e-cigarette manufacturer NJOY showed its menthol-flavored vapes provide a healthier alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes. The June 21 decision authorized marketing of four menthol-flavored vape products to adults only.

Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, described the FDA’s action as “deeply troubling given the extensive scientific evidence that menthol is a flavor that appeals to kids.”

The FDA said it will monitor NJOY’s marketing to ensure the company doesn’t appeal to underage consumers. The four new menthol flavors, along with 23 tobacco-flavored vapes, are the only FDA-authorized e-cigarettes. The agency banned most flavored e-cigarette products in 2020, but many of them are still sold illegally.

The 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey reported that over 2 million high school and middle school students used e-cigarettes. Menthol was the fourth-most-popular flavor, with nearly 20 percent of e-cigarette users surveyed listing it as their favorite.

Far-flung butterflies

For the first time, an international team of researchers has documented an uninterrupted butterfly trek across an entire ocean. Gerard Talavera, a researcher from the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, was puzzled to spot painted lady butterflies, known to migrate from Europe to Africa, on a South American beach in 2013. Talavera and his colleagues found compelling evidence that the painted ladies flew at least 2,600 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to reach South America.

The team’s DNA sequencing of pollen grains carried by the butterflies, as well as genetic sequencing of the insects themselves, strongly suggests they originated in West Africa or Europe, not North America. Weather data from the preceding weeks indicated unusually favorable wind conditions aided their flight from West Africa. According to the study, published in Nature Communications on June 25, the butterflies’ journey would have taken five to eight days. —H.F.

Unhealthy isolation

Loneliness can hurt more than your heart. A study published June 24 in eClinicalMedicine claims to be the first to show a long-term link between consistent loneliness in middle and old age and stroke risk. Adults aged 50 and older who participated in the study and reported chronic loneliness between 2006 and 2008 had a 56 percent greater risk than participants who didn’t report feeling lonely. Stroke incidence, assessed between 2006 and 2018, rose even after considering other risk factors, like depression, anxiety, and social isolation. —H.F.