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Tag: cigarette smoking

  • Netflix To Rethink On-Screen Smoking In Effort To Reduce Harm To Youth

    Netflix To Rethink On-Screen Smoking In Effort To Reduce Harm To Youth

    Netflix had 866 instances of tobacco appearing on screen in 2016-2017, while broadcast and cable shows had 343.

    The streaming giant Netflix has announced that it will make efforts to reduce the depiction of smoking on screen after a report found that smoking had become more common in Netflix original shows that are popular with young people. 

    Although smoking rates have decreased nationally, television scenes depicting smoking have increased. A report by the Truth Initiative found that 92% of shows in the 2016-2017 season showed smoking, up from 79% the previous year.

    Netflix had 866 instances of tobacco appearing on screen in 2016-2017, while broadcast and cable shows had 343. The previous year, Netflix had 299 instances, while cable and broadcast had 139 instances. 

    Impact On The Youth

    The Truth Initiative report emphasizes that seeing smoking and tobacco products on screen can inspire young people to use tobacco themselves. 

    “Analysis of peer-reviewed studies estimates that exposure to tobacco use in movies is responsible for 37% of smoking initiation among young smokers,” the report authors wrote. 

    They continued, “The popularity of streaming combined with the pervasive rise of smoking in episodic content points to an emerging threat to a new generation of Young Americans.”

    Up to 28 million young people have been exposed to smoking through the most popular programs. 

    In response to the report, Netflix issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly saying that it will reconsider the use of tobacco and e-cigarettes on screen. A spokesperson for the organization said that Netflix needs to balance harm reduction with artistic expression and historical accuracy.

    “Netflix strongly supports artistic expression. We also recognize that smoking is harmful and when portrayed positively on screen can adversely influence young people,” the spokesperson said. 

    In the future, all projects with a rating of TV-14 (for shows) or PG-13 (for movies) will not feature smoking or e-cigarette use “except for reasons of historical or factual accuracy” Netflix said. 

    “For new projects with higher ratings, there’ll be no smoking or e-cigarettes unless it’s essential to the creative vision of the artist or because it’s character-defining (historically or culturally important),” the spokesperson said. “In addition, starting later this year, smoking information will be included as part of our ratings on the Netflix service so our members can make informed choices about what they watch.”

    ‘Stranger Things’ Tops The List 

    Researchers for the Truth Initiative found that the popular Netflix show Stranger Things showed smoking more than any other program—in fact, every episode of the show contained images of tobacco use. The show stars a group of teens, many of whom are under the age of 18. 

    Netflix was the primary focus of the report not intentionally, but because young people surveyed indicated that their favorite shows were mostly Netflix originals, the report authors noted. 

    “While Netflix is the focus of this analysis because it is the platform for young people’s favorite streaming shows, it should be noted that the proliferation of tobacco imagery is not limited to Netflix,” they said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Texas Raises Legal Smoking Age To 21

    Texas Raises Legal Smoking Age To 21

    The ban does not extend to members of the military under the age of 21 years.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that prohibits the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to anyone under the age of 21.

    Supporters of the ban, which goes into effect September 1, said that it could aid in reducing the number of young adults who become regular smokers, which according to the Surgeon General numbers around 2,400 per day.  With passage of the bill, Texas joins a growing list of cities and states across the country that have increased the legal tobacco age.

    Governor Abbott signed Senate Bill 21 into law on Friday (June 7). The scope of the ban includes cigarettes and other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has attributed with a 38% rise in tobacco use among high school students between 2017 and 2018. Juul, which the Huffington Post described as the most commonly used brand of e-cigarette, has voiced support for “Tobacco 21” legislation, as such bills are often called.

    As HuffPost also noted, the ban does not extend to members of the military under the age of 21 years.

    A report from the Surgeon General stated that more than 600,000 middle school students and three million high school students currently smoke cigarettes. Those numbers have slowed in their decline over the last decade, while rates of decline for smokeless tobacco, such as e-cigarettes, have “stalled completely,” according to the report.

    The report also stated that more than 1,200 individuals in the United States die due to smoking-related causes each day, and for each of those deaths, at least two “youth or young adults” become regular smokers each day. Approximately 90% of those “replacement smokers” use their first cigarette by the age of 18.

    According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, similar “Tobacco 21” bans have been passed in 14 states including California, Hawaii (the first to pass such a ban in 2016), Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Some 470 cities and counties, including New York City, Chicago and Boston, have also passed bans, though the strength of these ordinances varies by location.

    U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to raise the tobacco age to 21 on the federal level.

    Beverly Hills, California, recently became what is believed to be the first city to ban tobacco sales to anyone, save for hotel guests, cigar lounges and any retailer that can demonstrate undue financial distress due to the ban.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Atlanta May Soon Ban Smoking In Public Places

    Atlanta May Soon Ban Smoking In Public Places

    Atlanta already passed a smoking ban for outdoor parks in 2012.

    Under a new bill, Atlanta, Georgia could soon join the growing number of cities that have banned smoking in public places. 

    According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the new legislation would prohibit smoking in various public spaces, including Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (by getting rid of smoking lounges), restaurants and bars, hotels, motels, stores, offices, public transit, restrooms and parking structures.

    Smoking within five feet of the entrances of such places, windows and ventilation systems would also be prohibited, the AJC reports. 

    “If people wish to smoke in public, we simply ask that they step outside,” said city council member Matt Westmoreland. “Legislation like this saves lives. It creates a safer, healthier city.”

    In 2012, Atlanta passed a smoking ban for outdoor parks. Under the proposed legislation, the definition of smoking would be expanded to also include e-cigarettes or vaping. However, this excludes facilities like cigar bars and hookah lounges that meet certain sales thresholds. 

    Some restaurants in the area already ban smoking while others allow it, according to the AJC. This is because back in 2005, Georgia passed what it called a smoke-free law, which allowed restaurants and bars to allow smoking under certain circumstances. 

    Currently, according to Georgia Restaurant Association CEO Karen Bremer, it’s estimated that less than 10% of restaurants in the area allow smoking.

    Tommy Webb, owner of Northside Tavern, currently allows it but says he is open to the idea of becoming a non-smoking space.

    “People have been pushing me to go to non-smoking… It is a question that comes up often and I’m caught in the middle,” Webb told the AJC. “I’m rolling with the times.”  

    Officials at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport—the country’s busiest airport—have been planning to convert existing smoking lounges into shops or restaurants. According to the AJC, the airport is one of only five in the U.S. that still allows smoking.

    Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, expressed in a statement that the airline supports the idea of a smoke-free airport. “Employees and customers who work and travel through ATL every day deserve a safe and healthy environment,” the statement read. 

    Moving forward, Westmoreland says he plans to hold a work session in May during which the ordinance would be discussed.

    If approved by committees and the full council, the ordinance may be in effect by September 1 of this year. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Do Graphic Images On Cigarette Packaging Keep Non-Smokers Away?

    Do Graphic Images On Cigarette Packaging Keep Non-Smokers Away?

    A new study examined whether graphic warnings on cigarette packs worked to deter smoking. 

    A new study has found that cigarette advertising featuring graphic images associated with smoking – cancerous lesions and bleeding – might be as effective in influencing young people and adults to stay away from smoking as text-based labels on cigarette packs.

    As Science Daily reported, researchers presented nearly 1,000 adult smokers and middle schoolers with randomly selected advertisements, some featuring upbeat images and scaled down warnings and others showing combinations of graphic warnings and the Surgeon General’s warnings about cigarette use.

    Participants reported feeling more negatively towards cigarettes after viewing the graphic warning in either text or image form, regardless of size, than text-only warnings, which suggested to the researchers that employing such warnings may be useful in countering the more positive imagery used by the cigarette industry.

    The study, conducted primarily by researchers from Cornell University and funded by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was carried out using 451 adults who smoked and 474 middle school-aged students, all from rural or urban low-income communities in the Northeastern United States. Each participant was randomly provided with a set of six advertisements for cigarettes with different presentations.

    Some featured “positive” images – a group of happy people taking a selfie – in combination with a graphic warning label that covered 20% of the ad, while others were given ads that featured combinations of text-only warnings and more graphic warning images, as well as brand images and socially attuned imagery like the other set of ads.

    Researchers asked participants to report whether they felt any negative emotions while viewing the images, while also tracking their eye movements to determine which part of the ad they viewed and for what duration of time. What resulted was the more graphic warnings – both text and image – drew more attention from participants than text-only warnings, including the Surgeon General’s warning.

    The graphic warnings also produced more negative feelings than the text-only warnings and helped to dampen the younger participants’ opinions about the appeal of cigarettes.

    “That’s important, because there’s pretty good evidence that the visceral reactions to these warnings are a main driver of their effectiveness,” said lead author Jeff Niederdeppe, associate professor of communication at Cornell. “These ads are trying to create a positive brand image, and the graphic warnings help suppress that.”

    Niederdeppe also reported the researchers’ surprise at finding that participants felt the same degree of negative feelings towards a graphic warning that covered a small (20%) portion of a full-page advertisement as they did towards a similar ad that covered 50% of a cigarette pack. “It suggests that 20 percent coverage on an advertisement is a high enough threshold to create the negative emotion,” he explained.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • FDA Wants To Ban Menthol Cigarettes

    FDA Wants To Ban Menthol Cigarettes

    The Food and Drug Administration believes that flavored products are too appealing to teens.

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving to restrict the sale of flavored e-cigs and cigars as well as ban menthol cigarettes outright.

    Last Thursday, the FDA released a detailed proposal for its proposed policies. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the move is meant to stop teens from picking up smoking. These three flavored products are popular with young people, making it too easy to start smoking thanks the sweet or cool flavors.

    “Today, I’m pursuing actions aimed at addressing the disturbing trend of youth nicotine use and continuing to advance the historic declines we’ve achieved in recent years in the rates of combustible cigarette use among kids,” explained Gottlieb.

    Cigarette smoking rates are lower than ever in the United States, but thanks to vaping being massively popular, nicotine addiction remains an imminent threat to youths today.

    Particularly concerning to the FDA is a 78% increase in e-cigarette use among high schoolers and, alarmingly, a 48% increase in e-cigarette use among middle schoolers between 2017 and 2018.

    “These data shock my conscience,” said Gottlieb.

    Menthol has long been a target of the FDA. Public health officials believe that thanks to the menthol counteracting the harshness of the smoke, menthol cigarettes make it easier to start smoking.

    “I believe these menthol-flavored products represent one of the most common and pernicious routes by which kids initiate on combustible cigarettes,” Gottlieb said.

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) supported the FDA’s endeavor to ban menthol cigarettes as they are popular among black Americans.

    “For decades, data have shown that the tobacco industry has successfully and intentionally marketed mentholated cigarettes to African Americans and particularly African American women as ‘replacement smokers,’” an NAACP statement read.

    Cigarette manufacturers predictably did not warm up to the idea.

    “We continue to believe that a total ban on menthol cigarettes or flavored cigars would be an extreme measure not supported by the science and evidence,” the Altria Group Inc., which produces Marlboro Menthol, wrote in a statement.

    Anti-smoking advocates like Matthew Meyers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, welcome the move but believe a total ban on flavored e-cigs would do much more to stop teens from getting hooked on nicotine.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Warnings Featuring Diseased Body Parts Make Smokers Think Twice

    Warnings Featuring Diseased Body Parts Make Smokers Think Twice

    A recent study aimed to find which features made picture warnings the most effective.

    When it comes to the effectiveness of warnings on tobacco products, a picture is worth a thousand words—particularly if that picture features a diseased or damaged body part caused by smoking.

    Those types of warnings are the most effective at getting smokers to try to quit, according to a study published this week in the journalTobacco Control. Previous research had shown that picture warnings are more of a deterrent than text-only warnings, like those currently used in the United States.

    This most recent study aimed to find which features made picture warnings the most effective, and found that those with damaged or diseased body parts and testimonials encouraged the most people to try and quit smoking.

    “Humans act in response to our emotions,” lead author Jazmyne Sutton told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “When we feel a negative emotion—fear, disgust, etc.—we want to avoid the source of that emotion.”

    In 118 countries—including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—governments mandate that tobacco is sold in packaging that features pictures of cancerous growths, surgical holes in throats, amputations, gangrenous feet and other health ailments that can be caused by tobacco use.

    “There has been tremendous progress internationally in implementing package health warnings, with many countries increasing warning size, more countries requiring picture warnings, and an increasing number of countries requiring multiple rounds of picture warnings,” wrote the authors of another recent report compiled by Canadian researchers. “The worldwide trend for larger, picture health warnings is growing and unstoppable, with many more countries in the process of developing such requirements.”

    Those researchers found that larger warning labels—those that cover at least half of the packaging—are most effective. Timor-Leste, Nepal and Vanuatu had the largest warnings, which covered more than 85% of tobacco packaging.

    In the United States, warning label requirements fall well behind many other countries, thanks in part to the still-powerful tobacco lobby. America had the smallest warning labels out of 206 countries reviewed by researchers.

    In 2009, Congress passed a law requiring the use of warning labels with photos. However, the implementation of the law has been hindered by a lawsuit from tobacco manufacturers and retailers.

    This fall, a court ruling ordered the FDA to speed up the process of implementing photo warnings. Proponents hope that this will help decrease the estimated 480,000 deaths caused by smoking each year, and reduce the number of Americans living with a smoking-related illness, currently estimated to be more than 16 million.

    View the original article at thefix.com