Tobacco control
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To examine the association between the use of menthol cigarettes and smoking cessation, amount smoked, and time to first cigarette in the morning. ⋯ Future work is needed to clarify the physiological and sociocultural mechanisms involved in mentholated cigarette smoking.
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To analyse a policy dilemma in China on public health versus the tobacco economy through additional cigarette tax. ⋯ Additional taxation on cigarettes in China would be a desirable public policy for the Chinese government to consider.
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Several states, including California, have implemented large cigarette excise tax increases, which may encourage smokers to purchase their cigarettes in other lower taxed states, or from other lower or non-taxed sources. Such tax evasion thwarts tobacco control objectives and may cost the state substantial tax revenues. Thus, this study investigates the extent of tax evasion in the 6-12 months after the implementation of California's 0.50 dollars/pack excise tax increase. ⋯ Despite the potential savings, tax evasion by individual smokers does not appear to pose a serious threat to California's excise tax revenues or its tobacco control objectives.
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To assess tobacco use among Massachusetts public college students and compare students who attended high school in Massachusetts and were exposed to the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (MTCP) with students who attended high school outside Massachusetts and were unexposed to the programme. ⋯ Tobacco use is common among Massachusetts public college students. Students who were exposed to the MTCP during high school are less likely to use tobacco than their peers who were not exposed to this programme. The MTCP may have reduced tobacco use among this group of young adults.
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This report summarises a workshop on evaluation of tobacco control interventions convened in Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 2001 by the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The evaluation of such interventions is filled with complexities which intensify as the scope of tobacco control programmes increase. Evaluators are charged with the task of determining the effect of interventions in terms of magnitude of change, the relative contribution of programme components, and the relative impact for different populations. ⋯ Participants were certain and unanimous that the current state of evaluation research must be improved to evaluate accurately the dynamic nature of comprehensive tobacco control programmes. Hierarchical or multilevel modelling approaches were seen as promising for further research. Coordinated evaluation will provide a better understanding of local, state, and national tobacco control efforts.