PACT Notes

On August 15 ABC’s Good Morning America featured a segment highlighting the health risks associated with Juul, in particular for kids. The segment highlighted the letter the Lung Association submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on August 7 with five other leading health groups. The letter calls for the FDA to stop the sale of new electronic cigarette products similar to Juul that have been illegally introduced in recent months without the agency’s prior review and authorization.

According to new CDC research, e-cigarette unit sales significantly increased in the United States from 2012 through 2016 for all assessed product types, including rechargeables, disposables, prefilled cartridges, and e-liquids. CDC and RTI International analyzed retail scanner data to assess national and state-specific trends in e-cigarette unit sales and prices for four product types sold. At the state level, monthly unit sales significantly increased for at least one product type in all 48 states and Washington, DC. During the same period, national e-cigarette prices significantly decreased for all product types with the exception of e-liquids, which increased in price in five states and Washington, DC. Furthermore, prominent shifts occurred by product type, with prefilled cartridges having the highest average sales and the lowest average price in 2016.

An article published in Tobacco Control aimed to assess US cigar sales by flavor category (i.e. concept flavored, characterizing flavor and tobacco) at national, regional and state levels. The results showed that flavored cigars are increasingly labelled with concept flavors, including in areas with flavored tobacco sales restrictions. Cigarillos are driving recent increases in US cigar and concept-flavored cigar sales. It is important to consider concept flavors when addressing flavored tobacco product sales and use.

Heated tobacco products, sometimes marketed as heat-not-burn technology, represent a diverse class of products that heat leaf tobacco to produce an inhaled aerosol. Global sales of heated tobacco products are increasing; however, the extent of current heated tobacco product awareness and use in the U.S. is unknown. This study assessed awareness and ever use of heated tobacco products among U.S. adults. Given the uncertain impact of HTPs on individual- and population-level health, timely and accurate public health surveillance is critical to monitor emerging trends.

Users of e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) in the United States are no more likely to quit smoking cigarettes than people who don’t use such devices, according to a study by a group of tobacco researchers at the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. The researchers found no evidence that ENDS as they have been marketed and used in the U.S. are effective at helping smokers quit at a population level.

Pennsylvania remains a leader in going smoke-free at its Pride Festivals. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults use tobacco products at a rate of 2.5 times higher than straight adults, according to the Center for Disease Control – making tobacco use one of the greatest health challenges for the LGBT community. Smoking remains the leading cause of death in the United States and while rates have been decreasing on average they have not declined for some groups such as racial minorities or the LGBT community. However, LGBT leaders and health advocates are taking a stand to combat the well-documented marketing efforts of Big Tobacco by supporting efforts to transform Pride Festivals into smoke-free spaces.

On Friday June 22,2018 Gov. Tom wolf signed a $32.7 billion budget package. This budget contains no broad-based tax or fee increases, but boosts spending through the state’s main bank account by $700 million, or 2 percent, largely for schools, social services, pensions and prisons. In addition, the fiscal code includes information that would be considered level funding from last year for PA Tobacco Control and Prevention Services!

CDC and the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation (ANR) analyzed data from ANR’s College Campus Tobacco Policy Database to track the number of college and university campuses in the US that were smoke-free (completely prohibited smoking) or tobacco-free (completely prohibited both smokeless tobacco use and combustible tobacco product smoking) in all indoor and outdoor areas. Findings from this article include: among the 2,082 campuses with smoke-free policies, 84% were tobacco-free.

The Clean Indoor Air Act (Act 27 of 2008) was signed into law on June 13, 2008. The legislation prohibits smoking in a public place or a workplace. However, the bill allows for exceptions where Pennsylvania workers continue to be exposed to harmful secondhand smoke. In Pennsylvania, over 2,300 venues are exempt, leaving many hospitality workers exposed to harmful carcinogens.