June 2018 News and Research Roundup

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

Tobacco Marketing and Subsequent Use of Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes and Hookah in Adolescents, Nicotine & Tobacco Research
- smokeless ad inside a store
  
  Adolescent (11-12^th) grade students who had never smoked but who reported frequent exposure to cigarette marketing on the Internet and in stores were more than twice as likely to have started smoking 16 months later than students less frequently exposed. Similarly, never-e-cigarette users who were more frequently exposed to marketing on the Internet, in stores, or outdoors were more likely to start using e-cigarettes. Never-hookah-users were more likely to start using hookah if they were frequently exposed to in-store marketing for hookah. Students reported the most frequent exposure to tobacco advertisements in stores with 58.7% reporting that they saw ads most of the time or all of time in stores for cigarettes, 43.1% for e-cigarettes, and 35.3% of hookah. Additionally, youth who were exposed to in-store marketing for non-cigarette tobacco (e-cigarettes, hookah, cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco) were also two to three times as likely to later start smoking cigarettes.
Commentary: An intersectional approach to the menthol cigarette problem: what’s race(ism) go to do with it?, Critical Public Health
- This commentary uses an intersectional framework to argue that the exemption of menthol tobacco products from the 2009 Family Smoking and Tobacco Control Act, an otherwise comprehensive flavor ban for cigarettes, “resulted from processes of institutional racism, including racial residential segregation, targeted tobacco marketing and lobbying in Black communities, and limited specificity in scientific reporting of cigarette use among Black people.”
- Learn more about menthol tobacco products.
Tobacco 21 Policy Support by U.S. Individuals Aged 13-25 Years: Evidence From a Rolling Cross-Sectional Study (2014-2017), American Journal of Preventive Medicine
- This study looks at support for Tobacco 21 policies among youth and young adults over the course of 2014-2017. The study found that 68.8% of individuals were in support of raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 21 across the three years. Of current non-smokers, 73.5% were in support and 49.8% of current smokers were in support. Younger individuals (ages 13-17) were most supportive (79.9%), followed by 21-25-year-olds at 65% and 18-20-year-olds at 61.4%. Support among young smokers ages 13-20, who would be most impacted by the policy, was 40.1% across the three-year period. Support in this group peaked at over 50% in early 2016 but then declined in mid-2016 following policy-related events.
- Learn more about Tobacco 21 policies.
flavors

Sensory analysis of characterising flavours: evaluating tobacco product odours using an expert panel, Tobacco Control
- In this study, an expert panel was successfully training to identify characterizing aromas in cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco. The panel was able to distinguish cherry, vanilla, and menthol flavors as distinct from non-flavored products. Researchers believe this method could be used for other tobacco products as well.
Understanding Why Pictorial Cigarette Pack Warnings Increase Quit Attempts, Annals of Behavioral Medicine
- While pictorial warnings did not have much influence on beliefs and attitudes, in comparison to text-only warnings, they resulted in increased attention and stronger reactions to the warnings as well as more social interactions about the warnings and more thoughts about quitting and intentions to quit.
- News Story: Picture warnings on cigarette packs change behavior because they are upsetting and memorable, study finds, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
- Learn more about POS Health Warnings.
Comparison of toxicant load from waterpipe and cigarette tobacco smoking among young adults in the USA, Tobacco Control
- News story: Hookah responsible for over half of tobacco smoke inhaled by young smokers, EurekAlert!
A Pragmatic Trial of E-Cigarettes, Incentives, and Drugs for Smoking Cessation, New England Journal of Medicine
- News Story: To get smokers to quit, money works better than electronic cigarettes, Los Angeles Times