在美国有超过200万的青少年.S. 使用电子烟. 图片来源:iStock.
在美国有超过200万的青少年.S. 根据2021年的报告，使用电子烟 全国青少年烟草调查. 他们中的大多数——近85%——使用调味产品.
反吸烟组织 说香料可以改善电子烟的味道, making it easier for youth to become addicted to the nicotine in them. 国会议员 好几个州 已经同意, 禁止销售 of e-cigarettes that come in flavors like candy, mint, and menthol.
In 2019, Massachusetts became the first state to restrict the sale of all flavored tobacco products, 包括电子烟, 雪茄, 咀嚼烟草. New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in 2020. 到2022年，加州选民将会投票 决定 whether to end the sale of flavored tobacco, including flavored vaping cartridges.
但这些政策真的有效吗? 它们是否减少了年轻人的烟草使用? Three researchers at 太阳城网赌平台 have received a two-year, $430,000 grant from the 国家癌症太阳城官网所 以及食品和药物管理局 烟草制品中心 to study how state policies that restrict the sale of flavored tobacco products affect tobacco use among people 14 to 24.
社会流行病学专家 萨默·舍本·霍金斯经济学家 装备鲍姆发展心理学家 丽贝卡·莱文·科利 将组队分析来自 青少年危险行为调查 和 行为风险因素监测系统. The surveys capture the use of e-cigarettes among young people across the U.S., enabling the trio to evaluate the efficacy of the new tobacco laws that have cropped up in states throughout the nation. 在过去的两年里, a total of seven states have enacted temporary or permanent bans on flavored tobacco products.
“Differences in state tobacco control policies create a natural experiment, allowing us to evaluate their effects using these representative datasets,霍金斯说。, 副教授 太阳城网赌平台社会工作学院 谁是这项太阳城官网的负责人. “That’s really powerful because it’s the best we can do when we’re trying to evaluate how policies are enacted.”
太阳城官网人员计划与CTP分享他们的发现, 它规范了生产, 市场营销, 以及烟草产品的分销，以保护公众健康. They hope their study will inform the development of new policies that limit tobacco use among young people.
烟草 杀死 美国每年有超过48万人.S.—more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined.
“Heavy nicotine consumption by adolescents may have long-term health and mental health effects,鲍姆说。, 大学的教授 莫里西文理学院 谁在社会工作学院有礼遇. “太阳城官网控制烟草使用措施的有效性, 包括使用电子烟, is important to evaluate appropriate public policy responses at state and federal levels.”
数据来自疾病预防控制中心 显示 多年来，年轻人的吸烟量一直在下降. The percentage of high school students who said that they have used cigarettes in the past month, 例如, 从2011年的16%下降到2020年的5%. 但随着年轻人吸烟率的下降, 电子烟的使用量急剧上升, and e-cigarettes have remained the most commonly used tobacco product among youth since 2014. 关于 20 percent of high school students reported in 2020 that they had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.
萨默·舍本·霍金斯
“The tobacco world was thinking this was going to be the first smoke-free generation of young people in 50 years. 这是一个巨大的成就, 看到这些下降的水平,霍金斯说。, who studies the impact of policies on health disparities in parents and children. “Suddenly, e-cigarettes were introduced into the market, and it was like night and day. 我们完全看到了年轻人开始使用这些新产品的转变, 有趣的产品有很酷的口味.”
The popularity of e-cigarettes is driving researchers and policymakers to develop and test new ways to decrease their use, 说绿青鳕, 大学的教授 林奇教育与人类发展学院 who studies how social and economic disparities affect well-being.
“The rapidly rising popularity of new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes threatens years of public health success in decreasing early and heavy use of tobacco products,”她说。. ”这样的, it is essential to develop and test policies and programs which interrupt young people’s entry into tobacco use.”
作为他们太阳城官网的一部分, the researchers will look at the effectiveness of policies that make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under 21. 尽管联邦政府 提高了 2019年，购买烟草和电子烟的年龄从18岁降至21岁, some states have endorsed stricter policies to regulate their 市场营销 and sale.
比如马萨诸塞州， 要求零售商 to post signs that say it is illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under 21 and restricts the distribution of free samples of e-cigarettes to adult-only tobacco stores and licensed smoking bars.
“We know if states implemented these policies before or after the federal policy, so we can test to see if they’re having a bigger impact than the federal legislation,霍金斯说。. “It’s really exciting to know that states are being innovative and trying to think outside the box.”
The researchers will also examine how state closures of schools and businesses related to COVID-19 affected tobacco use. 特别是, they will look at the impact of closures on tobacco use across age, 比赛, 种族, 性, 以及其他社会人口变量.
物质使用 飙升 大流行期间. 烟草的使用也增加了吗? “我们看到，为了应对COVID，药物使用量有所增加. We want to see if this applies to young people related to tobacco use,霍金斯说。. “Some states actually considered tobacco shops as essential businesses, so tobacco was more or less accessible depending on where you lived.”
她附和鲍姆和科利的话, saying that the ultimate goal of their investigation is to translate their research findings into policies that save lives. “烟草 use is one of the largest killers of people in America,”她说。. “So how can we really encourage not having young people take up this habit?”