Tobacco control
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To assess the impact of promotions on cigarette sales in Taiwan after the cigarette market opened to foreign companies, and to assess whether young smokers were targeted by these companies. ⋯ This study provides evidence that advertising increased with increased competition following the market opening, which, in turn, spurred cigarette sales and consumption. Foreign tobacco companies have deliberately targeted youth in Taiwan and succeeded in gaining three quarters of their cigarette purchases within a decade. Expanding youth consumption will incur excessive future health care costs borne by society. Foreign tobacco companies should be obligated to reimburse these expenses through higher tariffs on cigarettes.
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To develop a simulation model to predict the effects of tax policies on smoking prevalence rates and smoking attributable deaths. ⋯ Tax rises have the ability to substantially affect smoking rates in Taiwan. These effects grow over time and lead to substantial savings in lives and health care costs.
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California's comprehensive tobacco control programme was 13 years old in 2002; by then, children entering adolescence at the start of the programme were young adults. This study examines whether adolescent smoking declined over this period, whether any decline carried through to young adulthood, and whether it was specific to California. ⋯ California's comprehensive programme may have kept new adolescent cohorts from experimenting with cigarettes. Low young adolescent experimentation rates at programme start appeared to carry through to young adulthood, resulting in a recent drop in young adult smoking prevalence in California not observed in the rest of the USA.