Tobacco-promotion bans will work
Banning the distribution of cigarette promotional items (CPIs), such as T-shirts, lighters, backpacks, and electronic equipment, would help to dissuade American youths from smoking, say US researchers.
The researchers, from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, NH, USA), interviewed more than 1200 students in five rural schools and found that one-third owned a CPI. After control for confounders, such as having family and friends who smoked, students who owned CPIs were more than four times as likely to be smokers as those who did not own CPIs (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1997; 151: 1189-96). Never smokers and experimental smokers who owned CPIs were more likely than non-owners to start smoking in school grades 6-9, a period when children are most vulnerable to starting smoking.
The sale of CPIs in the USA has risen massively, the authors note. Money spent by the tobacco industry on CPIs increased from 7·7% of its advertising budget in 1990 to 25·8% in 1994. "It is difficult to conceive of alternatives for limiting the impact of CPIs on children short of an outright ban", say the authors, who support the inclusion of CPIs in US Food and Drug Administration restrictions on cigarette promotion to minors. The tobacco industry is challenging these restrictions in federal court.
Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of the author.
Copyright © 1997 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved. Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.