Tobacco control
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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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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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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.
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To review tobacco industry documents on filter ventilation in light of published studies and to explore the role of filter ventilation in the design of cigarettes that deliver higher smoke yields to smokers than would be expected from standard machine smoked tests (Federal Trade Commission (FTC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO)). ⋯ Filter ventilation is a dangerous, defective technology that should be abandoned in less hazardous nicotine delivery systems. Health interested groups should test cigarettes in a way that reflects compensatory smoking. Lower tar (vented filter) cigarettes should be actively countermarketed.
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Review
Cigarettes with defective filters marketed for 40 years: what Philip Morris never told smokers.
More than 90% of the cigarettes sold worldwide have a filter. Nearly all filters consist of a rod of numerous ( > 12 000) plastic-like cellulose acetate fibres. During high speed cigarette manufacturing procedures, fragments of cellulose acetate that form the mouthpiece of a filter rod become separated from the filter at the end face. The cut surface of the filter of nearly all cigarettes has these fragments. In smoking a cigarette in the usual manner, some of these fragments are released during puffing. In addition to the cellulose acetate fragments, carbon particles are released also from some cigarette brands that have a charcoal filter. Cigarettes with filters that release cellulose acetate or carbon particles during normal smoking conditions are defective. ⋯ We have shown that: (a) the filter of today's cigarette is defective; (b) Philip Morris, Inc has known of this filter defect for more than 40 years; (c) the existence of this filter defect has been confirmed by others in independent studies; (d) many methods exist to prevent and correct the filter defect, but have not been implemented; and (e) results of investigations substantiating defective filters have been concealed from the smoker and the health community. The tobacco industry has been negligent in not performing toxicological examinations and other studies to assess the human health risks associated with regularly ingesting and inhaling non-degradable, toxin coated cellulose acetate fragments and carbon microparticles and possibly other components that are released from conventional cigarette filters during normal smoking. The rationale for harm assessment is supported by the results of consumer surveys that have shown that the ingestion or inhalation of cigarette filter fibres are a health concern to nearly all smokers.