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

Point-of-sale tobacco promotion and youth smoking: a meta-analysis, Tobacco Control
- This meta-analysis of the association between exposure to point of sale tobacco promotion among youth and their smoking susceptibility found that youth more frequently exposed to tobacco promotion are 1.6 times as likely to have tried smoking and are 1.3 times as likely to be susceptible for future smoking compared to youth less frequently exposed to tobacco promotion. This indicates that bans on tobacco promotion would be effective in reducing smoking initiation and smoking rates among youth.
- Learn more about policies to restrict tobacco advertising and promotion.
Regulating Tobacco Product Advertising and Promotions in the Retail Environment: A Roadmap for States and Localities,Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
- This article analyzes legal obstacles to various strategies for reducing youth tobacco use initiation and outlines point of sale interventions for localities and states to consider.
- Learn more about point of sale policy options.
What’s in Store: A Vision for Healthier Retail Environments through Better Collaboration, American Journal of Law & Medicine
- This paper argues for increased collaboration on addressing tobacco, food, and alcohol in the retail environment as a way to improve the health of communities.
- Imagine the Store of the Future
State level point-of-sale policy priority as a result of FSPTCA, Public Health AIMS
- According to surveys of state-level tobacco control practitioners, the importance of point of sale policies has grown for 75% of states since the passage of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act , which gave state and local governments the authority to regulate tobacco products in ways that restrict the time, place, and manner of tobacco advertising. However, competing tobacco control priorities such as smokefree laws and tobacco excise taxes and lack of capacity and funding have limited the ability of some states to work on point of sale tobacco control policies.
- Learn more about POS policy activity at the state level in the Point of Sale Report to the Nation.
Public opinion about FDA regulation of menthol and nicotine, Tobacco Control
- This study showed greater support among smokers for reducing nicotine content in cigarettes compared to reducing or removing menthol. Overall, 79% of those surveyed supported reducing nicotine and 59.5% supported reducing or removing nicotine. Among smokers, 59.2% opposed eliminating menthol, whereas only 23.8% opposed reducing nicotine. African-American smokers, a group Big Tobacco has historically targeted with marketing of menthol products, were more supportive of eliminating menthol than non-African-American smokers (29% opposed compared to 62.3% of non- African-Americans opposed).
- Learn more about conducting public opinion surveys and more about disparities in point of sale advertising.
Viewpoint: Big Tobacco and Drugstore Chains: A Long, Cozy Relationship, JAMA Oncology
- Learn more about the importance of Tobacco Free Pharmacies.
Dissuasive cigarette sticks: the next step in standardized (‘plain’) packaging?, Tobacco Control
- Learn more about POS Health Warnings.
Use of electronic nicotine delivery systems and other tobacco products among USA adults, 2014: results from a national survey, International Journal of Public Health
- Nearly 10% of adult e-cigarette use is among never smokers, while 22% of current e-cigarette users were former cigarette smokers. Half of all current cigarette smokers have tried e-cigarettes, while 20.7% currently use them.
- Learn more about e-cigarettes at the point of sale.