cigarettes Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Prevalence of Nicotine Pouch Use Found to be Low Among U.S. Adults

The AHA! Team — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 04:45:40 +0000

Keck School of Medicine of USC via News-Medical – A new study found that the prevalence of nicotine pouch use was low in U.S. adults despite a 641% increase in sales of the products between 2019 and 2022. Researchers say the findings raise questions about who is using the millions of nicotine pouches sold in the U.S. and why. Nicotine pouches, a new commercial tobacco product, contain a crystalline powder with nicotine, flavorings (including fruit, mint or candy) and other additives. They do not cause respiratory harm and are perceived by some as an alternative to help adults who smoke tobacco quit. Nicotine pouches have recently gained attention over concerns that their flavors and trendy social media marketing campaigns are attracting youth users. However, limited data on usage among adults has been collected since the new products entered the market. Now, a study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the University of Nebraska Medical Center analyzed nicotine pouch use in a nationally representative sample of 39,557 U.S. adults. The study found that 2.9% of adults had ever used nicotine pouches, with 0.4% reporting current use. The majority of adults currently using pouches also currently smoke cigarettes. Additionally, 5.2% of those who attempted to quit smoking in the past year and had relapsed back to smoking reported using pouches to help with their cessation efforts. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was just published in JAMA. “The low prevalence of nicotine pouch use in adults surprised us, given the rapid increase in sales. But it’s also possible that the sales are being diverted to adolescents, who were not represented in this survey.” – Adam Matthew Leventhal, PhD, study coauthor, professor in the department of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine and executive director of the USC Institute for Addiction Science Patterns of pouch use Data for the study were collected through the Current Population Survey (CPS) Tobacco Use Supplement in September 2022. The CPS is a monthly survey of U.S. adults that uses rigorous research methods to ensure its participants represent an accurate cross-section of the country’s population, making the results reliable enough to influence important policy decisions. The Tobacco Use Supplement includes straightforward questions about cigarette smoking, attempts to quit smoking and-;for the first time in September 2022-;the use of nicotine pouches. Of 39,558 survey respondents, 2.9% had ever used nicotine pouches, and 0.4% were currently using them. Adults who currently smoked (10.8%) or formerly smoked (6.7%) were more likely to report ever using nicotine pouches compared to people who had never smoked (1.1%). Current use of nicotine pouches was also higher among adults who currently smoked (1%) and formerly smoked (0.7%) compared to those who had never smoked (0.2%). Pouch use, both past and present, was lower in adults under 65, but higher in males and non-Hispanic whites. Among those who currently smoked who tried to quit in the past year, more reported trying to switch to e-cigarettes (21.6%) than nicotine pouches (5.2%) to help them quit. One question raised by the findings is whether adults who use nicotine pouches may be using them to “top off” nicotine in situations where they cannot smoke or use other tobacco products, Leventhal said, rather than as a way to quit smoking. Instead of reducing the health risks of cigarette smoking, that use pattern could actually make nicotine dependence more severe. Based on the study results, Leventhal estimates that of all U.S. adults who currently used nicotine pouches in 2022, about 35% had previously smoked cigarettes and 25% were currently smoking cigarettes. The remaining 40% of adult pouch consumers had never regularly smoked cigarettes and could be at risk for developing nicotine dependence. “In summary, we didn’t see a large population of adults using nicotine pouches, and fewer appear to be using them in a fashion that would potentially reduce their harm from smoking cigarettes,” Leventhal said. Regulating nicotine pouches New nicotine products typically go straight to market before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews marketing applications and decides whether to authorize or ban each product. That decision involves weighing potential public health benefits, such as whether a product provides a safer alternative for adults who smoke, against risks, such as whether it may increase nicotine dependence among youth. Applications from major manufacturers of nicotine pouches are currently under review by the FDA. “Regulators can take our data and put it into that equation,” Leventhal said. “What our study suggests is that there’s not a large population of adults who smoke who are using these products to quit.” This study is part of the USC Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, one of seven national centers supported by the NIH and FDA to collect evidence that can inform tobacco product regulation. In collaboration with the University of Michigan and other institutions, USC researchers are also conducting a parallel study to investigate adolescent use of nicotine pouches. They are looking at how pouch use relates to shifting teen usage patterns of other nicotine products, including e-cigarettes. About this research In addition to Leventhal, the study’s other author is Hongying Daisy Dai from the College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha. This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute [U54CA180905] and the National Institute on Drug Abuse [R21DA058328]. Source: Keck School of Medicine of USC Journal reference: Dai, H. D., et al. (2024). Prevalence of Nicotine Pouch Use Among US Adults. JAMA. doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.10686. To read the original article click here.

The post Prevalence of Nicotine Pouch Use Found to be Low Among U.S. Adults appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Menthol Ban Looming, Cigarette Makers Turn to Synthetic Substitutes

The AHA! Team — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 08:40:01 +0000

Duke Health – DURHAM, N.C. – Synthetic chemicals that mimic menthol’s cooling sensations are being added to newly introduced “non-menthol” cigarettes in states that have banned the additive, according to a new study from Duke Health. Synthetic chemicals that mimic menthol’s cooling sensations are being added to newly introduced “non-menthol” cigarettes in states that have banned the additive The additives appear to be an effort to circumvent an expected federal ban of menthol cigarettes by the FDA later this year. Already, California and Massachusetts have enacted laws banning sales of menthol cigarettes. In a study appearing online Oct. 9 in JAMA, researchers from Duke Health and Yale University identified new compounds that achieve similar cooling sensations to menthol, which has long been added to tobacco to reduce harshness. Menthol cigarettes are often favored by young people and those just starting to smoke. Historically menthol cigarettes have also been aggressively marketed towards African Americans, with up to 90% of African Americans who smoke using menthol cigarettes. “We found that tobacco companies are adding a synthetic cooling agent called WS-3 to these new “non-menthol” cigarettes,” said Sven-Eric Jordt, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine and senior author of the study. “The added amounts are sufficient to produce robust cooling sensations, with some brands having more cooling activity than their menthol equivalent cigarettes.” When California’s menthol ban was enacted in December 2022, the big tobacco companies, RJ Reynolds and ITG, introduced “non-menthol” cigarette brands as menthol substitutes, with very similar packaging and marketing strategies as their menthol cigarette brands. Sairam V. Jabba, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Duke and lead author of the study, measured whether cigarettes purchased in the two states with bans contain chemicals that activate the cold/menthol receptor, which senses environmental cold temperature and is activated by menthol. “We found that four of the non-menthol cigarette products, all manufactured by RJ Reynolds, robustly activated the cold/menthol receptor, and this cooling activity was stronger than of their menthol counterparts,” Jabba said. “These results signify that these new “non-menthol” cigarettes can produce the same cooling sensations as menthol cigarettes and thereby facilitate smoking initiation,” he said. “Allowing these cigarettes to be marketed would nullify several of the expected public health benefits from state and federal bans of menthol cigarettes.” A chemical analysis of the “non-menthol” cigarettes detected a synthetic cooling agent, named WS-3, in four of the nine currently marketed products. WS-3 produces a cooling effect, but lacks the minty smell of menthol, allowing these products to bypass regulations. The researchers also detected vanilla and tropical flavor chemicals in “non-menthol” cigarettes, contained in flavor capsules in the filters. “Our discovery of restricted flavors such as vanilla, which have characteristic odor and taste, demonstrates that big tobacco is ignoring current federal regulations banning the addition of characteristic flavors to cigarettes. More importantly, vanilla flavor is a very popular among children and youth, making it easy for them to initiate on these cigarettes,” Jordt said. “FDA regulators need to develop effective strategies for the control of odorless cooling agents and flavors that threaten to bypass tobacco flavor bans,” he said. In addition to Jordt and Jabba, study authors include Hanno C. Erythropel, Paul T. Anastas, and Julie B. Zimmerman of Yale University. Research reported in this publication was supported by grant number U54DA036151 (Yale Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Center for Tobacco Products of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the Food and Drug Administration. To read the original article click here.

The post Menthol Ban Looming, Cigarette Makers Turn to Synthetic Substitutes appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Cigarette Smoke Damages Our Mental Health, Too

AHA Publisher — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:00:00 +0000

ISRAEL21c Staff by Israel21c – New Israeli-Serbian research study suggests that smoking and depression are closely linked. Everyone knows that cigarette smoking can cause lung cancer, heart disease, low birth weight, and high blood pressure, among other health hazards. But you may be surprised to learn that there are also mental health risks related to smoking, according to a new study. Professor Hagai Levine at Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine published these groundbreaking findings in the journal PLOS ONE with Assistant Prof. Tatjana Gazibara at the University of Belgrade and PhD student Marija Milic at the University of Pristina. Together, they surveyed more than 2,000 students enrolled at Serbian universities with differing socio-political and economic environments. The survey showed that students who smoked were two to three times more likely to suffer from clinical depression compared to non-smoking peers. At the University of Pristina, 14% of smokers suffered from depression as opposed to 4% of their non-smoking peers, and at Belgrade University the numbers were 19% to 11%, respectively. No matter their economic or socio-political backgrounds, students who smoked also had higher rates of depressive symptoms and lower mental health scores (such as vitality and social functioning) than did non-smoking students. “Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that smoking and depression are closely linked,” shared Levine. “While it may be too early to say that smoking causes depression, tobacco does appear to have an adverse effect on our mental health.” To read the original article click here.

The post Cigarette Smoke Damages Our Mental Health, Too appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.