Each month, the Geographic Health Equity Alliance (GHEA) aggregates the latest news and research related to place-based tobacco control and geographic health disparities. Below you will find the latest posts, updated regularly throughout the month.
(Last updated: April 22, 2021)
Place-Based Tobacco Control News and Research
Brought to you by our partners at Counter Tobacco.
- An Australian research study suggests that restricting the retail availability of tobacco is unlikely to have a pronounced negative impact on low socio-economic small retailers.
Visit Countertobacco.org for their full monthly news and research roundups.
General Tobacco Control News and Research
- The FDA recently made a historic announcement, proposing a ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes and ban all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars. This decision is based on scientific evidence establishing the addictiveness and harm of these products and builds on important, previous actions that banned other flavored cigarettes in 2009. The FDA has stated that it plans to develop a regulation banning these products within the next year.
- A study on the interest in e-cigarette discontinuation among U.S. adults finds that the majority of e-cigarette users expressed interest in eventually quitting vaping. Former cigarette smokers had the highest levels of intention and interest in quitting vaping.
- A research study examining social media behaviors and patterns of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and tobacco among adolescents finds that both exposure to and interactions with social media tobacco content had a significant impact on the patterns of ENDS and tobacco use.
- A research study examining potential language gaps in the reach of “The Real Cost” campaign found that bilingual youth were significantly less likely to report exposure to the campaign.
- A study examining the effectiveness of communication approaches to advise smokers to quit smoking to reduce their COVID-19 risk finds that all four message types in the study were perceived favorably in terms of acceptability, believability, effectiveness and personal relevance. Each message type had significant differences in the percentage of respondents who intend to quit. The significant differences in intentions of respondents to quit were larger for the COVID-19 related messages compared to the other two message types.
- A study on the differences in current cigarette and e-cigarette use between transgender and cisgender individuals found that gender identity has a significant effect on use. Individuals identifying as transgender reporting higher odds of using cigarettes or e-cigarettes. Additionally, significant indirect effects of use include increased symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation.
- The Truth Initiative published a new Flavored Tobacco Policy Resource Center which provides information on U.S. cities that took action to implement flavored tobacco policy restrictions and their impact.
- A focus group study on messaging about nicotine reduction in cigarettes finds that exclusive smokers were receptive to both efficacy messages and risk messages. Dual users were the only study group that was open to resorting to alternative sources of nicotine. Non-smokers felt that efficacy messages downplayed the risks of smoking and did not scare people away from smoking.
- A study examining the sources of flavored e-cigarettes among California youth and youth adults found that those individuals in localities that restrict the sales of flavored tobacco are less likely to obtain flavored JUUL from retail sources, but more likely to obtain it from social sources, compared to their counterparts in the rest of the state.
