News and Research Round Up – Counter Tobacco

Welcome to CounterTobacco.org’s “News and Research Roundup!” Each month we post a summary of the latest research, reports, and news stories on counteracting tobacco product sales and marketing at the point of sale (POS). Keeping up with what’s happening in the POS movement all across the country can help you choose policies and strategies that work best for your community. New research can help provide support for your work and evidence for the importance of the “War in the Store.” Have a story you don’t want us to miss? E-mail it to us!

New Research

The Tobacco Control Network’s Policy Readiness and Stage of Change Assessment: What the Results Suggest for Moving Tobacco Control Efforts Forward at the State and Territorial Levels, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice
- Readiness to work on tobacco control strategies varies by region and by strategy. Work on strategies with lower population-level impacts can still reduce the prevalence of tobacco use by impacting perceived norms of tobacco use. Shifting priorities toward achievable policy outcomes may pave the way for more high-impact strategies.
- Learn more ways to measure public support for tobacco control strategies.
Effects of brand variants on smokers’ choice behaviours and risk perceptions, Tobacco Control
- In Australia, where plain packaging for cigarettes has been implemented, descriptors that confer connotation such as “Premium Smooth Classic” or “Rich Classic Red” still influence smokers’ cigarette pack choices and still allow tobacco companies to target different population segments.
- Learn more about the US’s 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and its ban on “characterizing flavors.”
Impact of a U.S. antismoking national media campaign on beliefs, cognitions and quit intentions, Health Education Research
- News story: Exposure to national tobacco education campaign increased intentions to quit smoking, study finds, RTI.org
- Learn more about POS Health Warnings and Print Campaigns and find more media campaign examples in our Video Gallery
The association of point-of-sale cigarette marketing with cravings to smoke: results from a cross-sectional population-based study, Tobacco Control
- This study found that smokers’ recalled exposure to point-of-sale cigarette advertisements and displays was associated with more frequent cravings to smoke.
- Learn more about policy solutions to restrict tobacco advertising and displays.
Understanding community norms around tobacco sales, PLoS One
- This focus group study with participants from Ohio, New York, and California found that some limits on tobacco sales, such as banning tobacco sales in grocery stores that sell healthy products and, in the case of Californian participants, banning tobacco sales in pharmacies, are seen as normative from the perspective of community members.
- Learn more about banning tobacco sales in pharmacies in our Tobacco-Free Pharmacies Action Guide.
The added value of accounting for activity space when examining the association between tobacco retailer availability and smoking among young adults, Tobacco Control
- This study from Canada found that young adults (ages 18-25) were more likely to smoke if their residential spaces and/or their activity spaces (where they study, work, grocery shop, exercise, or spend their leisure time) had a high number of tobacco retailers compared to those whose residential and activity spaces had a lower number of tobacco retailers.
- Learn more about strategies to reduce the number of tobacco retailers, such as licensing and zoning policies

New Journal: Tobacco Regulatory Science

Tobacco Regulatory Science: Implementing a New Journal for Tobacco Control, Tobacco Regulatory Science
- Tobacco Regulatory Science is a new journal created as a forum for dissemination of science that can inform tobacco regulation.
Public Health Effects of Restricting Retail Tobacco Product Displays and Ads, Tobacco Regulatory Science
- This review of the literature found that federal, state, or local point of sale restrictions on tobacco product displays and ads would substantially reduce morbidity and mortality related to smoking. If implemented comprehensively, projections show POS restrictions would reduce smoking prevalence by 2065 by about 16% more than if policies remain at the status quo.
- Learn more about policy solutions for restricting tobacco advertising and displays.
Quitting and Switching: Menthol Smokers’ Responses to a Menthol Ban, Tobacco Regulatory Science
- This study among Minnesota smokers found that half of all menthol smokers reported that they would quit smoking if menthol cigarettes were banned.
- Learn about disparities in menthol tobacco advertising.
Appeal and Impact of Characterizing Flavors on Young Adult Small Cigar Use, Tobacco Regulatory Science
- This study with focus groups of young adult smokers found that visual, smell, and taste cues from the packaging of flavored little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) influence their affect as well as their susceptibility to and initiation of LCC smoking. They also influenced cigarettes smokers’ switch to smoking flavored LCCS.
- Learn more about LCCs in the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids’ report, “Not Your Grandfather’s Cigar”