Welcome to CounterTobacco.org’s second installment of our new “News and Research Roundup!” Each month we’ll be posting 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 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

Youth Targeting:

• Tobacco industry use of flavors to recruit new users of little cigars and cigarillos, Tobacco Control
  • Find policy solutions on restricting product availability to help reduce youth access, and find tips on regulating flavored products.
    
• Multiple tobacco product use among US adolescents and young adults, Tobacco Control
  • This study shows that almost half (46%) of youth tobacco users are using more than one type of tobacco product, many of which, such as e-cigarettes, are unregulated by the FDA, or, like little cigars and cigarillos, hookah, and smokeless tobacco, are subject to less regulation, and are more likely to be flavored. Read more about sales restrictions that could help reduce the tobacco industry’s targeting of youth through regulating flavored products.
• The density of tobacco retailers in home and school environments and relationship with adolescent smoking behaviors in Scotland, Tobacco Control
  • News article: Teenagers far more likely to take up smoking if they live near a large number of shops selling tobacco products, Deadline News
  • Find policy solutions to help combat tobacco retailer density, like Licensing and Zoning!
• Use of tobacco retail permitting to reduce youth access and exposure to tobacco in Santa Clara County, California,Preventive Medicine
  • The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors implemented a comprehensive Tobacco Retail Permit, requiring all tobacco retailers to obtain an annual permit to sell tobacco, pay an annual renewal fee of $425. Under the new ordinance, no new permits would be issued to retailers located within 1000 ft of a K-12 school or within 500 ft of another tobacco retailer. As a result, Santa Clara County saw reduction in density, proximity to schools, and number of tobacco retailers. Nearly one third of tobacco retailers in the unincorporated areas of the county, mostly non-traditional tobacco outlets, decided to end their tobacco sales as a result.
  • Find more about Licensing and Zoning solutions!

    

• The Changing Face of Tobacco Use Among United States Youth, Current Drug Abuse Review
  • This study reviews alternative or other tobacco product use among youth in the US.

Disparities:

From Tobacco Control’s “Social Justice and Health Disparities” Special Themed Issue

• Tobacco industry marketing to low socioeconomic status women in the USA, Published Online First: 21 January 2014
• Equity impact of interventions and policies to reduce smoking in youth: systematic review, Published Online First 19 May 2014
• Impact of tobacco control interventions on socioeconomic inequalities in smoking: review of the evidence, Published Online First 17 Sept 2013

Minimum Price Laws

• Reducing tobacco use and access through strengthened minimum price laws, American Journal of Public Health
  • Read more about minimum price laws and other ways to raise tobacco prices through non-tax approaches.

Graphic Warning Labels

• Cigarette graphic warning labels and smoking prevalence in Canada: a critical examination and reformulation of the FDA regulatory impact analysis, Tobacco Control
  • News Story: Graphic cigarette warning labels reduce smoking rates, The Colombia Chronicle 

Other Tobacco Products:

• Biomarkers of Exposure among U.S. Cigar Smokers: An Analysis of 1999-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Data, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
  • This study found regular cigar smokers to be just as at risk of cancer as regular cigarette smokers. This is contrary to the common misperception that cigars are less harmful than cigarettes. Currently, cigars and cigarillos, both popular among young people, are not subject to the same FDA regulations as cigarettes. One big difference? The FDA prohibits the sale of flavored cigarettes, but cigars and cigarillos can still come in variety of flavors. Read more about regulating flavored tobacco products.
  • News Story:  Time to Quit the Cubans? Cigars May Be as Bad as Cigarettes, Bloomberg BusinessWeek

New Reports

• Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults, United States, 2005-2013, CDC Morbidty and Mortality Weekly
  • News Story: Adult Cigarette smoking rate overall hits all-time low:despite progress, smoking rates stay high for certain groups, CDC Newsroom
• Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students – Unites States, CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
  • Youth cigarette smoking continues to decline, but e-cigarette use among youth has tripled since 2011.
  • News Story: New CDC Youth Tobacco Survey Should Spur FDA to Finalize Rule Regulating All Tobacco Products, Including E-Cigarettes and Cigars, says Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, PR Newswire
• North Carolina Youth Tobacco 2013 Survey, NC Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch
  • News article: Youth Tobacco Survey Shows Less Smoking, More E-cigarette Use Among NC Teens, Camel City Dispatch

Industry News

• Camel maker Reynolds American launching cigarette that heats tobacco rather than burning it, Associated Press
• Big Tobacco’s Strong Pricing Power: PM USA, Lorillard, Reynolds American, Liggett instituting 7-cents-per-pack increases,CSP Daily News
• Retail Perspective: No Thanks, Vape: Why Cumberland Farms is eschewing open systems and e-liquids, CSPnet.com, Tobacco E-News

POS Policy in the Media