Content about Cigarette

ATLANTA — The number of adult smokers who had used electronic cigarettes more than doubled in the space of a year, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Hiding tobacco product displays at the point of sale may help reduce smoking among young people, a new study suggests.

The study, conducted by RTI International and Tarheel Technologies and published in the January 2013 issue of the journal Pediatrics, examined the behaviors of more than 1,200 smokers and likely smokers ages 13 years to 17 years in a virtual convenience store in which tobacco products were either hidden behind a cabinet or openly displayed along with tobacco ads.

SAN DIEGO — Health warning labels on cigarette packages that use pictures to show the health consequences of smoking are effective in reaching adult smokers, according to the results of a new study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 

 SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration took the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 one step closer to being considered by the Supreme Court earlier this week. The FDA recently petitioned the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit the court's August decision that ruled in favor of the tobacco industry and precluded the FDA from mandating that graphic images depicting the consequences of smoking be placed on all cigarette packaging. 

Electronic cigarettes, sometimes called personal vaporizers, are making their way into the drug channel. As tobacco smoking in public is steadily becoming a thing of the past, smokers are looking for alternatives, and more retail channels are carrying the products.

Rite Aid has begun to carry several models of electronic cigarettes, replacement batteries and replacement cartridges, and is merchandising the products at the checkout near tobacco products.

WASHINGTON — Tobacco companies received a favorable ruling Monday and as a consequence will not have to institute new graphics that depicted images like diseased smokers on their packaging next year.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Five tobacco companies filed suit against the Food and Drug Administration challenging nine new cigarette warnings as an unconstitutional way of forcing tobacco manufacturers to disseminate the government's anti-smoking message.

Under the FDA's recently announced regulation, cigarette packs and cartons and all cigarette advertising must display new graphic warnings by Sept. 22, 2012. The suit seeks a preliminary injunction to stay the effective date of the regulation and a declaration that the regulation is unconstitutional.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Almost half of all smokers try and fail to quit their addiction to nicotine products each year, according to a study released Wednesday.

A contributing factor to the high rate of failed quit attempts is the low use of nicotine-replacement therapies, the study found. That may be because of misperceptions around the health effects of NRTs.

ATLANTA — New graphic cigarette warning labels released last month by the Food and Drug Administration already appear to be having one desired effect: an increase in "quit smoking" queries to the national 1-800-QUIT-NOW smoking cessation line, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The new labels aren’t even on cigarette packages yet — the labels will be implemented next year.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Four-in-5 menthol smokers would quit if the Food and Drug Administration banned mentholated cigarettes, according to a survey conducted this month with sponsorship from GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

The survey found that smokers of menthol cigarettes — who are disproportionately African-American — feel “twice-addicted” to the menthol and the tobacco, while 74% of them said the menthol made inhalation easier, and 40% said menthol flavoring was the only reason they smoked.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The very substantial decrease in teen smoking that began in the mid-1990s has come to a halt among younger teens in the United States, and some evidence of a possible increase in their smoking was observed this year, announced researchers that were part of the "Monitoring the Future" study on Tuesday.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The news that San Francisco's board of supervisors gave preliminary approval to ban tobacco sales at all retailers that operate pharmacies, including mass merchants and grocers, is a step in the right direction, because if drug stores are going to be banned from selling them, then all retail pharmacy outlets should be banned. However, there's an even bigger picture to consider.