Floe Foxon
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floefoxon.bsky.social
Floe Foxon
@floefoxon.bsky.social
52 followers 39 following 75 posts
Scientist
'Scully and Mulder in one'
MSc Data Science (Statistics) student @universityofleeds.bsky.social
BSc (Hons) Physics with Astronomy @uniofnottingham.bsky.social
Pinney Associates, Juul Labs harm reduction consultant
floefoxon.github.io
Posts Replies Media Videos
floefoxon.bsky.social
Sigh.
#Vaccines #COVID
August 30, 2025 at 1:28 AM
floefoxon.bsky.social
May 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
Nekrogoblikon, you rock.
@ericwbrown.bsky.social
‪
May 23, 2025 at 1:37 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
80 years ago today, the Soviet Union and its allies 🇺🇸 🇬🇧completed the largest pincer movement in history, obliterating nazi 🇩🇪 and its satellites 🇭🇺 🇷🇴 🇫🇮 🇮🇹. So many brave men and women sacrificed themselves to destroy fascism in Europe. Be grateful they did. #VictoryDay #VEDay80
May 8, 2025 at 2:07 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
Of course it was cloudy here the entire time we had a good, clear view of the colossal Active Region 4055, but here's the best I could manage to snap yesterday as it rotates out of view to the far side of the Sun...
#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Sun #Sunspots #Spaceweather
White light image of the Sun showing visible sunspots
April 14, 2025 at 12:14 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
There are entire YouTube channels of fake AI-generated 'nature' videos pretending to be real. We're destroying actual animal environments to fuel power-hungry AI content creation... of fake animals. Every video this channel has is fake.
March 19, 2025 at 12:09 AM
floefoxon.bsky.social
10/11 A reply from the authors leaves much to be desired (doi.org/10.1016/j.am...); they admit the first error but dismiss the rest as "quibbles about language", mention my transparently disclosed COI, & neglect that @mbsiegel.bsky.social served as an expert witness *against* the industry🥴
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
8/11 Why this matters: if we want people who smoke to stop smoking, and medical experts to help them, we must provide accurate information to prevent the spread of misperceptions, which are already highly prevalent (doi.org/10.1186/s128...; doi.org/10.1108/DAT-...).
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
7/11 Finally, the guidance suggests that only behavioural programs are suitable for cessation in pregnancy, despite CDC not recommending against NRT and the NHS recommending it: nhs.uk/pregnancy/ke...
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
6/11 The guidance also claims that substituting some cigarettes for e-cigarettes (dual use) does not reduce biomarkers of harm, despite a meta-analysis by @cochranetag.bsky.social concluding precisely the opposite (doi.org/10.1111/add....).
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
5/11 Another claim is that e-cigarettes are a 'gateway' to smoking among adolescents. As @crisdelnevo.bsky.social and Villanti have shown (doi.org/10.3390/ijer...), youth smoking prevalence declined faster after e-cigs were introduced, and is now record-low, incompatible with a net gateway.
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
4/11 Another apparent maths mistake is the claim that a single e-cigarette contains "as much nicotine as... 10 packs of tobacco cigarettes" - but this compares the nicotine *content* of one product with the *systemic intake* from the other, which is a false equivalence:
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
3/11 The original paper (doi.org/10.1016/j.am...) states that "Approximately 46 million adults currently smoke". Although no reference was given, tracking down the source reveals that the authors included smokeless tobacco and e-cigarette use as 'smoking', which doesn't compute:
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
2/11 Our letter received no funding. Disclosures below.
March 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
If you're at #SRNT2025, feel free to say hello. I look like this but not always with the mask:
March 12, 2025 at 1:46 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
And so it begins... #SRNT2025 #SRNT25 #SRNT #NOLAtake2 #ScienceMatters #ResearchSavesLives
March 12, 2025 at 1:46 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
Is E-Cigarette Use Associated with Stroke? Re-Analysis Reveals Major Errors in Study. New PubPeer comment by Dr Gal Cohen and I at: pubpeer.com/publications...
Abstract below. #harmreduction #epidemiology #tobaccocontrol #ecigs #vaping @retractionwatch.com
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Abstract of article at link above.
March 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
Lots to see in the night sky this month... #Astronomy #Astrophotography #Moon #Venus #Mercury #Jupiter #Mars #Planets
March 4, 2025 at 1:13 AM
floefoxon.bsky.social
My god, it's full of spots!☀️
#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Sun #Sunspots
Picture of sunspots on the photosphere
February 23, 2025 at 12:08 AM
floefoxon.bsky.social
🚨New paper alert🚨 I have an article out today in Research Notes of the @aas.org looking at #SolarCycle25 predictions. Available open access at: doi.org/10.3847/2515...
#Astronomy #Sunspots #SolarCycle #SpaceWeather
A figure showing an image of sunspots, the cyclical sunspot numbers over time, and estimates/predictions for solar cycle 25.
February 18, 2025 at 8:04 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
My best sunspot shot yet ☀️ - beautiful active region cluster. #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Sun #Sunspots @snhwx.bsky.social
Image of sunspots taken from Pittsburgh with a telescope.
February 2, 2025 at 3:43 AM
floefoxon.bsky.social
Methods used to stop smoking cigarettes by adults in 🇺🇸 (top doi.org/10.1007/s117...) and in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (bottom doi.org/10.1001/jama...). E-cigarettes and other reduced-risk nicotine products are by far the most popular. Real world evidence for #HarmReduction #THR. #Ecigarettes #Vaping
Chart showing that e-cigarettes and other reduced-risk nicotine products such as NRT and nicotine pouches are much more popular smoking cessation aids than other methods.
January 18, 2025 at 1:35 AM
floefoxon.bsky.social
15/ Oh, and here's a handy figured summarizing some of the results:
A barplot showing the number of US adults who quit smoking in the past year (2022) by stop-smoking method. Nicotine products including e-cigarettes are the most popular, followed by prescription drugs and non-nicotine, non-prescription drug method.
January 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
12/ Disclosure: This study received no funding. Outside of this study, I provide consulting on tobacco harm reduction to Juul Labs, which had no involvement in this study. Full disclosure statement from the paper:
Screenshot of the conflict of interest section of the paper, which reads: "The authors declare the following potential conflicts of interests: F.F. provides consulting services through Pinney Associates on tobacco harm reduction to Juul Labs Inc., which had no involvement in this article. As of October 2024, Pinney Associates also consults to Philip Morris International solely on US regulatory pathways for non-combustible, non-tobacco, nicotine products, which also had no involvement in this article. Pinney Associates does not consult on combustible tobacco products. R.N. has received grant and contractual funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration; served as a paid consultant to the Government of Canada via a contract with Industrial Economics Inc; received an honorarium for a virtual meeting from Pfizer Inc.; received other NIDA grants paid to his employers; received salary from the Steven Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at The Legacy Foundation, now Truth Initiative, New York University School of Global Public Health; and communicated with Juul Labs personnel, for which there was no compensation, and received hospitality in the form of meals at some meetings; none of which supported the work reported here. The Progressive Policy Institute sponsored a trip (travel and lodging) for R.N. to present a paper at a symposium: can e-cigarettes help tobacco cigarette smokers quit? A review of the evidence, Tobacco Harm Reduction—an Update, 54th annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology, jointly held with the 34th annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Clinical Neuropsychopharmacology and the 35th World Congress Collegium International Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan, May 24, 2024; no honorarium, consulting fee or other payment was provided."
January 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM
floefoxon.bsky.social
10/ We also note the necessity of preventing access to nicotine products by nonsmoking populations such as adolescents. Some limitations of this study are:
Screenshot of the limitations section of the paper, which reads: "This study also has limitations. First is the inability to parse out individual methods in the “none of the above” category, which is an unavoidable limitation of the NHIS questionnaire design. Because “none of the above” was inferred from respondents who stopped or tried but who did not select any of the surveyed items, the “none of the above” category may be underrepresented in these analyses. Furthermore, the questionnaire did not ask respondents about the duration of treatment use. Future questionnaires should ask respondents for these details. Recall bias may also limit the accuracy of these findings [16]. Additionally, we chose to treat respondents who responded with “don’t know” as missing, which has its limitations. Also importantly, the NHIS 2022 data did not explicitly survey some of the other more recent stop-smoking methods, such as nicotine pouches, snus, heat-not-burn or heated tobacco products, and others—these should also be surveyed in future questionnaires."
January 6, 2025 at 7:16 PM