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December 29th, 2016:

Brand Loyalty Low Among Teen E-Cig Users

Dec 29th, 2016
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Half of surveyed users did not know which brand they used

Half of teens who use e-cigarettes reported vaping no particular brand, and about a third reported using e-cigarette devices for substances other than nicotine, according to an analysis of recent survey data by researchers from the CDC.

The most commonly reported e-cigarette used by the middle school and high school students participating in the 2015 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) was the heavily promoted brand ‘blu’, manufactured by Fontem Ventures-Imperial Brands (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group).

Roughly one in four surveyed teen e-cigarette users (26.4%) reported using that brand, while 12.2% reported using the next most popular brand, ‘VUSE’, manufactured by R.J. Reynolds.

The survey results were reported Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“Electronic cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youths; in 2015, 5.3% of middle school students and 16% of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days,” CDC researcher Tushar Singh, MD, PhD, and colleagues wrote, adding that not much has been known about the brands preferred by teens and the substances used in e-cigarette devices.

The analytic sample of the 2015 NYTS included 4,021 students who reported ever using e-cigarettes, “even once or twice.” Respondents were asked what brands of e-cigarettes they had used, with eight specific brands listed, and whether they had ever used an e-cigarette device for vaping a substance other than nicotine.

Data were weighted to account for the complex survey design and to adjust for nonresponse. Prevalence estimates were also reported for the type of e-cigarette ever used, brands, and whether e-cigarettes were used for substances other than nicotine.

A total of 13.5% of sixth through eighth graders and 37.7% of ninth through 12th graders reported ever-use of e-cigarettes.

Among the adolescents reporting ever having used an e-cigarette, 14.5% used only disposable e-cigarettes, 53.4% used only rechargeable/refillable e-cigarettes, and 32.1% used both types.

Half of the student respondents (50.7%, representing 3.18 million teens) did not know the brand of the e-cigarette they had used.

Use of e-cigarettes for a substance other than nicotine was similar among middle school (33.7%) and high school (32.2%) users, and it was higher among males than females (37.3% of high school male e-cigarette users versus 26.2% of high school female respondents).

In a separate survey of high school age e-cigarette users in Connecticut, reported last year in Pediatrics, 18% of respondents reported using cannabis in an e-cigarette device.

“In the present analysis, it is unknown whether students who had used an e-cigarette for a non-nicotine substance had also used an e-cigarette for nicotine, which might underestimate nicotine use,” Singh and colleagues wrote.

“Nicotine content in e-cigarettes is of public health concern because exposure to nicotine is the main cause of tobacco product dependence, and nicotine exposure during adolescence, a critical period for brain development, can cause addiction, can harm brain development, and could lead to sustained tobacco product use among youths.”

Study limitations cited by the researchers included the self-reported nature of the survey, the limited number of specific e-cigarette brands included in the survey, and the lack of data on which substances other than nicotine were being used.

The researchers concluded that increased monitoring of product types, brands, and ingredients preferred by adolescent e-cigarette users is warranted, “to guide measures to prevent and reduce use of e-cigarettes among youths.”

Saudi Arabia to impose 100 percent value added tax on tobacco

Dec 29th, 2016
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http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2016/12/29/Saudi-Arabia-to-impose-100-percent-value-added-tax-on-tobacco.html

Saudi Arabia’s decision to impose 100 percent value added tax (VAT) on tobacco and its products will bring down the number of smokers in the country, said Dr. Mohammed Yamani, chairman of the board of directors of Naqa, an NGO that helps smokers kick the habit.

“The move is a positive and important step toward combating the unhealthy habit,” he told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s highest rates of smokers as 14 percent of its teenagers and seven percent of its women smoke.

“Smoking habit among young Saudis aged 18 and below has increased with their rate reaching 13 to 14 percent. The figure is close to the study conducted by the World Health Organization,” Yamani said.

He said the VAT on tobacco and its products would be imposed in the second quarter of 2017 as part of the government’s efforts to achieve fiscal balance.

“Cigarette prices in the Kingdom and other Gulf states are still low compared to other countries,” he pointed out.

Yamani, who has been working to combat smoking during the past several years, emphasized the need to bring price of a cigarette packet to SR35-SR40. “VAT will be imposed on import cost. So the price of a cigarette packet will not reach double of the present price,” he explained.

He wanted the Kingdom to increase taxes on cigarettes to bring prices to international level. He said low prices have contributed to increasing the number of smokers in the Gulf region, especially among teenagers and people having low income.

“The increase in cigarette price will not prevent people from smoking but bring down the number of smokers,” Yamani said citing studies conducted in advanced countries.
He said the executive bylaw for preventing smoking in public places will be published shortly.

“The Cabinet has already passed the law and the health minister has told us two weeks ago that the law will be implemented within a few days,” he added.

The Kingdom has widened the scope of public places where smoking is not allowed and it includes prayer places, schools and restaurants. It’s the longest article of the law.

He said VAT would be imposed on harmful materials beginning from the second quarter of next year. The Saudi finance minister has already signed a resolution taken by the GCC Supreme Council to impose 50 percent tax on beverages and 100 percent tax on tobacco and its products.

Teens are vaping more than ever, and not just nicotine

Dec 29th, 2016
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The latest report from the CDC digs into teens’ relationship with ecigarettes

Vaping is more popular with teens than ever, with more than one-third of high school students reporting having tried e-cigarettes. And teens aren’t always using e-cigs for nicotine, according to a new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that dug into teen vaping behavior.

To evaluate e-cig use, the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration poured through surveys filled out by 17,000 middle and high school students across the US in 2015. About 38 percent of high school students and 13 percent of middle school students reported that they’ve tried e-cigarettes.

That could be an underestimate, too, since the students were reporting their own behavior, and surveys based on self-reports are known to be unreliable.

The CDC is interested in vaping is because we still don’t know exactly how using e-cigarettes could affect a teen’s development. A medical group in the UK lauded e-cigs as useful tools to help current smokers quit, but the CDC said in a statement there’s no evidence that they work. What’s more, e-cig use during adolescence could kickstart an addiction, and the US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warns that nicotine in any form is unsafe for teenagers. Still, more than 3 million teens used e-cigs in 2015, a tenfold increase over four years that Murthy called a public health crisis. But to stop it, the CDC has to understand it better.

In today’s report, one-third of e-cigarette users reported using their devices for something other than nicotine. This was more common for male white and Hispanic students than non-Hispanic black students. The survey didn’t get into what exactly the students were using their vape pens for, if not nicotine. But other studies point to pot as the most likely substance.

More than half of the e-cig users stuck to reusable electronic cigarettes — the ones you can refill with new liquid nicotine cartridges — as opposed to the disposable kind.

Although most of the students didn’t know what brand they were using, the ones who did used blu and VUSE most frequently.

Both of these brands are owned by big tobacco companies, and are among the most heavily advertised. Millions of teens are exposed to ads for ecigarettes online and in stores. These ads take a leaf out of big-tobacco’s book, promising independence and sex appeal to manipulate people into buying. And they work: more exposure to e-cig advertisements corresponds with more e-cig use in young adults, according to previous CDC research.

The CDC has repeatedly called for restricting e-cig marketing, but they have no control over advertisements. But regulation of the devices is growing; just this year, the FDA ruled that e-cigarettes and vape pens fall under the regulatory umbrella of tobacco products, which means the agency can ban sales to people under 18. We’ll see if the numbers of teenage users drop when the CDC analyzes the data from 2016.