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

Youth Access

Brief Report: Community reductions in youth smoking after raising the minimum tobacco sales age to 21, Tobacco Control
- Between 2006 and 2010, smoking rates among high school aged youth decreased from 13% to 7% in Needham, MA, a town which in 2005 became the first to raise the minimum legal sale age (MLSA) for tobacco to 21. In comparable surrounding towns without such an ordinance, smoking rates declined less (from 15% to 12%), suggesting that raising the MLSA to 21 contributes to a greater decline in youth smoking.
- News Story: To Cut Teen Smoking, Raise Tobacco Sales Age, New York Times
- Learn more about why raising the minimum legal sale age to 21 matters
Development of an integrated tobacco endgame strategy, Tobacco Control
- This paper argues for phasing out tobacco consumption globally by employing three strategies in sequence: 1) using measures recommended in the WHO FCTC such as smoke-free areas, cessation support, warning labels, public health campaigns, bans on advertising, promotions, and sponsorships, and taxation; 2) denying tobacco sales to individuals born after a certain year while; 3) allowing the use of regulated alternative nicotine products as a harm reduction strategy.
Intended and unintended effects of restrictions on the sale of cigarillos to youth: evidence from Canada, Tobacco Control
- This study assessing change in tobacco product use following Canada’s 2010 ban on the sale of flavored cigarillos and requirement for a minimum pack size of 20 for unflavored cigarillos found that youth use of cigarillos declined by 22%, but youth use of regular cigars increased slightly. This indicates the need to possibly extend the ban to cover all flavored cigars and set a minimum pack size for regular cigars as well to avoid compensatory switching.
- Learn more about policies that set a minimum pack sizes and regulate flavored tobacco products.
Preference for flavoured cigar brands amount youth, young adults and adults in the USA, Tobacco Control
- This study found that younger smokers are more likely to prefer flavored cigars, and preference decreases with age. Youth, young adults, females, black people, cigarette smokers, blunt users, and daily cigar smokers were also more likely to prefer flavored cigars.
- Read more about flavored little cigars and how they are marketed to youth in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report: Not Your Grandfather’s Cigar

Other

Economic evaluations of tobacco control mass media campaigns: a systematic review, Tobacco Control
- This review of 10 studies found tobacco control mass media campaigns to consistently be cost effective and offer good return on investment.
- Learn more about media and print campaigns focusing on point of sale tobacco control.
Why E-Cigarettes are Dividing the Public Health Community, BMJ
- Learn more about e-cigarettes at the point of sale.
Nicotine replacement therapy, tobacco products, and electronic cigarettes in pharmacies in St. Louis, Missouri, Journal of American Pharmacy Association
- This study found that e-cigarettes were available in about half of the pharmacies surveyed, 88% of the pharmacies had tobacco advertising, and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) was less available and accessible in pharmacies in poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a high percentage of black residents. The researchers also found that NRT was more expensive than cigarettes in all pharmacies and often stocked adjacent to cigarettes.
- Learn more about prohibiting the sale of tobacco in pharmacies in our Tobacco Free Pharmacies Action Guide.

New Reports

Innovative Point-of-Sale Policies Case Study: Reducing Cheap Tobacco & Youth Access: New York City, Center for Public Health Systems Science at Washington University in St. Louis