Posts

USA Today – Our View: E-cigarettes cloud progress on teen smoking

USA Today Editorial Board

E-cigarettes, once seen as a harmless alternative to tobacco smoking, are beginning to look more like a new gateway to addiction.

This year, for the first time, more teens used electronic cigarettes than traditional ones: 17% of high school seniors used the devices, vs. 14% who smoked cigarettes. Kids in eighth and 10th grades favored them 2-to-1 over traditional smokes, according to an eye-opening University of Michigan survey released Tuesday.

In one sense, there is good news. Teen smoking hit a record low last year after a steady decline since the late 1990s, leaving fewer teens vulnerable to the risk of cancer, heart disease and emphysema that comes with tobacco use. But e-cigarettes are a troubling alternative.

Just as scientists didn’t grasp the danger of tobacco when the nation was becoming addicted, they don’t fully understand the risks posed by e-cigarettes now.

One is obvious: addiction.

E-cigs, battery-powered nicotine inhalers that produce a vapor cloud, could be every bit as addictive as tobacco. With sales skyrocketing to $754 million, 30 times five-year-ago levels, and tobacco giants Altria and Reynolds entering the business, millions of people are getting hooked.

This is particularly a problem during the teen years because that is when nearly all smokers pick up their habit.

For manufacturers, the logic is inescapable: Addict a teenager and you could have a customer for life; miss the moment and you have no customer at all. So in ways subtle and not so subtle, e-cigarette makers have applied Big Tobacco’s advertising and marketing practices.

One prominent tactic is their use of celebrities — including former Playboy centerfold Jenny McCarthy, singer Courtney Love, actor Stephen Dorff and teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame — to make “vaping” look sexy and rebellious.

No one knows how dangerous this is because with federal oversight missing, no one knows exactly what’s in the devices, some made in China. A Japanese study found hazardous substances in the vapor at higher levels than in cigarette smoke.

There are obvious ways to address the problem, starting with attention from the newly confirmed surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, and analysis by the Food and Drug Administration of e-cigarette content. Both worked with tobacco but could be thwarted by a Congress rigidly opposed to regulation.

Alternatively, states could fill the breach. Nearly a dozen still allow e-cigarette sales to minors when they plainly should not. They could also use the 1998 tobacco settlement negotiated with the industry long before e-cigarettes existed. The accord defines covered products in a way that includes e-cigarettes, because nicotine is derived from tobacco.

By invoking the settlement, state attorneys general would be able to clamp down on marketing that’s targeted at youth, including certain celebrity promotions, concert sponsorships and access to free samples.

After a decades-long battle against youth smoking, it would be tragic to see a new generation of teens hooked on a different but potentially dangerous substitute.

USA TODAY’s editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/12/16/e-cigarettes-teen-smoking-university-of-michigan-editorials-debates/20485297/

LLOYD OMDAHL: Legislature questions intelligence of voters

By: Lloyd Omdahl, Grand Forks Herald
Measure 4 on the November ballot is the latest attempt by the Legislature to restrict citizen use of the initiative process by which voters can propose measures for a vote of the people.
If passed, it would prohibit the secretary of state from putting on the ballot any citizen proposal that would direct the expenditure of money for a specific purpose. Apparently, legislators question the intelligence of the voters.
This is the latest in a never-ending series of attempts by the Legislature to make it more difficult for North Dakotans to use the initiative. In the past, most attempts have been aimed at raising the number of signatures required for filing petitions. They all failed.
This time, the Legislature wants to be sure that it has exclusive control over the huge surpluses in the state treasury. It is afraid that citizens who see neglected needs will win the support of the electorate to appropriate money.
The Legislature should be reminded that these surpluses would not exist without the adoption in 1980 of a measure initiated by the people to add a 6½ percent tax on oil production. The Legislature was doing nothing about the puny oil tax it had levied 25 years earlier.
Let’s look at the Legislature’s track record.
First, there’s the Legislature’s mismanagement of the money from the tobacco settlement in which North Dakota was awarded over $800 million. Even though Former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp won the lawsuit, the Legislature was quick to grab the money for programs other than fighting tobacco addiction.
To get the Legislature back on track, Heitkamp and other tobacco fighters initiated a measure directing the Legislature to spend tobacco settlement money on tobacco addiction. The voters approved the measure.
But the 2013 Legislature, in a petulant fit, refused to accept the decision of the voters. It started stripping out key provisions of the initiated measure. The effort failed only when the leadership could not muster the two-thirds vote needed to change an initiated measure.
Meanwhile, the Legislature held the appropriation hostage until the last day of the session when it relented and belligerently approved funding the program to fight tobacco addiction.
By proposing Measure 4, the Legislature is telling North Dakotans that they are not to be trusted with money. Many residents feel the same way about the Legislature. That is why we have provisions in the state constitution for the initiative and the referendum.
There are pressing needs that have been neglected by the Legislature and may require initiative petitions to appropriate money in the future.
One is the need for more support for clean water, conservation and parks. Even if Measure 5 proposing a significance increase in such funding is defeated, the need will not go away. A new initiated measure may be necessary.
A recent public opinion poll revealed strong public support for such programs.
Another critical need is funding for statewide preschool education. The last session did nothing except authorize cash-strapped school districts to raise their own money for preschool. There is wide public support for preschool education. This may require an initiated measure.
Generally speaking, the governor and the Legislature have done quite well with state money. Nevertheless, the Legislature sometimes develops blind spots when it comes to new needs and new opportunities.
Historically, North Dakota voters have been very responsible in dealing with money issues on the ballot. There is no justification for questioning their intelligence. Measure 4 is an unnecessary restriction on citizens participating in their government.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/lloyd-omdahl-legislature-questions-intelligence-voters

Raise tobacco tax to discourage kids

By KATHLEEN DONAHUE Bismarck

Almost all tobacco users became addicted before age 26. Thousands of kids try their first cigarette every day.

In recent years, declines in youth smoking rates have stalled and the use of other tobacco products by youth has actually increased.

The tobacco companies are aware of these trends and spend millions of dollars on new products and deceptive marketing with the goal of turning children into lifelong customers.

Advertising influenced my cousin to start smoking at an early age. Years later, his tobacco use cost him his life. I want to make sure no family experiences such a loss.

One of the best ways to prevent kids from ever starting the deadly addiction is to increase the price of tobacco products so they can’t afford to purchase them. States have been successfully using this tactic over the past decade by increasing local tobacco taxes.

I’m suggesting we raise North Dakota’s cigarette tax significantly. This one simple act can keep nearly 7,900 North Dakota kids from ever becoming adult smokers. And more importantly, it means that more than 4,700 tobacco-caused deaths like my cousin’s untimely passing would be prevented.

North Dakota, this is a win-win idea. You can decrease long-term health care costs and protect our children. I urge you to write your legislators and ask them to consider increasing North Dakota’s tax on all tobacco products. It’s the right choice for our kids.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/mailbag/raise-tobacco-tax-to-discourage-kids/article_94347622-4046-11e4-a807-af727e9b9e46.html

WHO urges stiff regulatory curbs on e-cigarettes

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY, Geneva
(Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) stepped up its war on “Big Tobacco” on Tuesday, calling for stiff regulation of electronic cigarettes as well as bans on indoor use, advertising and sales to minors.

In a long-awaited report that will be debated by member states at a meeting in October in Moscow, the United Nations health agency also voiced concern at the concentration of the $3 billion market in the hands of transnational tobacco companies.

The WHO launched a public health campaign against tobacco a decade ago, clinching the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Since entering into force in 2005, it has been ratified by 179 states but the United States has not joined it.

The treaty recommends price and tax measures to curb demand as well as bans on tobacco advertising and illicit trade in tobacco products. Prior to Tuesday’s report the WHO had indicated it would favor applying similar restrictions to all nicotine-containing products including smokeless ones.

In the report, the WHO said there are 466 brands of e-cigarettes and the industry represents “an evolving frontier filled with promise and threat for tobacco control”.

It urged a range of regulatory options, including banning e-cigarette makers from making health claims such as that they help people quit smoking, until they provide convincing supporting scientific evidence.

Smokers should use a combination of already-approved treatments for kicking the habit, it said.

While evidence indicates that they are likely to be less toxic than conventional cigarettes, the use of e-cigarettes poses a threat to adolescents and the fetuses of pregnant women using them, it said.

“NOT MERELY WATER VAPOR”

E-cigarettes also increase the exposure of bystanders and non-smokers to nicotine and other toxicants, it said regarding Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems that it calls ENDS.

“In summary, existing evidence shows that ENDS aerosol is not merely ‘water vapor’ as is often claimed in the marketing for these products,” the WHO said in the 13-page report.

E-cigarettes should be regulated to “minimize content and emissions of toxicants”, and those solutions with fruit, candy-like and alcohol-drinks flavors should be banned until proven they are not attractive to children and adolescents, it said.

Adolescents are increasingly experimenting with e-cigarettes, with their use in this age group doubling between 2008 and 2012, it said.

Vending machines should be removed in almost all locations, it added.

Scientists are divided on the risks and potential benefits of e-cigarettes, which are widely considered to be a lot less harmful than conventional cigarettes.

One group of researchers warned the WHO in May not to classify them as tobacco products, arguing that doing so would jeopardize an opportunity to slash disease and deaths caused by smoking.

Opposing experts argued a month later that the WHO should hold firm to its plan for strict regulations.

Major tobacco companies including Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L), Altria Group (MO.N), Philip Morris International (PM.N) and British American Tobacco (BATS.L) are increasingly launching their own e-cigarette brands as sales of conventional products stall in Western markets.

A Wells Fargo analyst report in July projected that U.S. sales of e-cigarettes would outpace conventional ones by 2020.

Uptake of electronic cigarettes, which use battery-powered cartridges to produce a nicotine-laced inhalable vapor, has rocketed in the last two years and analysts estimate the industry had worldwide sales of some $3 billion in 2013.

But the devices are controversial. Because they are so new there is a lack of long-term scientific evidence to support their safety and some fear they could be “gateway” products to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking.

The American Heart Association said in a report on Monday that it considered e-cigarettes that contain nicotine to be tobacco products and therefore supports their regulation under existing laws on the use and marketing of tobacco products.

“Although the levels of toxic constituents in e-cigarette aerosol are much lower than those in cigarette smoke, there is still some level of passive exposure,” the AHA said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Ben Hirschler and Martinne Geller in London, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-health-who-ecigarettes-idUSKBN0GQ0PF20140826

Tobacco Companies Have Made 9 Changes To Cigarettes, And They're All Scary Bad

Eric March, UPWORTHY
After the tobacco companies lost that major lawsuit in the ’90s, I always assumed they just sort of quietly went away. But nope. Turns out, they just laid low for a while, rebranded, and poured tons of money into figuring out these diabolical new ways to get and keep people addicted to cigarettes.
infographic-e2cdc205422dc634da47f9ff3c0052a4
 
 
ABOUT:  This graph was compiled by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. You can read their full report on the increasing danger of cigarettes, which is as massive in scope as it is infuriating,right here. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter and track them on Facebook.Thumbnail image posted to Flickr by user Javier Ignacio Acuña Ditzel, used under Creative Commons license.
http://www.upworthy.com/tobacco-companies-have-made-9-changes-to-cigarettes-and-theyre-all-scary-bad?c=hpstream

Tobacco tax law reportedly cost U.S. billions in revenue

By Reuters Media
WASHINGTON – A 2009 law that raised federal taxes to discourage smoking cost the U.S. government billions of dollars in lost revenue as manufacturers relabeled products and consumers shifted to cheaper pipe tobacco and large cigars, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report released on Tuesday.

The GAO estimated $2.6 billion to $3.7 billion in lost revenue from April 2009 to February 2014 as manufacturers exploited loopholes in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act which raised taxes for smoking-tobacco products.

“Each of the three tobacco manufacturers that agreed to speak with us explained that their companies switched from selling higher-taxed roll-your-own tobacco to lower-taxed pipe tobacco to stay competitive,” the congressional watchdog agency said in the report, which was the focus of a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

At the hearing, Liggett Vector Brands LLC Chief Executive Ronald Bernstein urged lawmakers to take action against abuses by manufacturers.

He held up two seemingly identical, but differently labeled non-Liggett bags of tobacco. Showing a third sample, he pointed out that a label saying “all-natural pipe tobacco” covered up a statement that the bag “makes approximately 500 cigarettes.”

“Everyone knows this is cigarette tobacco,” Bernstein said. “The manufacturer knows. The consumer knows. And I know. I know because I tried smoking it in a pipe and it was not a pleasant experience.”

Some manufacturers also add a few ounces of tobacco to small cigars so they qualify as the larger product. Others even mix in clay or kitty litter to increase the weight, Michael Tynan, policy officer at the Oregon Public Health Division, told the hearing.

The GAO said the tobacco market shifted accordingly. Yearly sales of pipe tobacco rose more than eight-fold from fiscal 2008 to 2013, while sales of roll-your-own tobacco declined almost six-fold.

Over the same period, large cigar sales doubled, while small cigar sales dropped to just 700 million from 5.7 billion.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, who convened the hearing, criticized the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which is responsible for collecting tobacco taxes and cracking down on evasion, for “footdragging.”

In recent years, the agency has pushed to apply “advanced investigative techniques to uncover illicit trade and fraudulent activity,” including deploying about 125 auditors and investigators, the TTB wrote in its Senatetestimony.

Responding to a push to better differentiate between roll-your-own and pipe tobacco, the agency published an “advanced notice of proposed rule making” in 2010 and 2011. But no rule had yet been issued, the GAO wrote.

In 2015, the TTB will issue a proposed regulation cracking down on the illegal activities, TTB Administrator John Manfreda said on Tuesday.

But Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said it was not enough. He said the problem reminded him of “the old marquee at the movie house that says: ‘Coming soon,’ and it never gets there.”

http://www.inforum.com/content/tobacco-tax-law-reportedly-cost-us-billions-revenue

Florida jury awards $23.6 billion verdict in big tobacco lawsuit

By Jacob Passy, NBC News

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company must pay $23.6 billion to the estate of a man who died of lung cancer in what may be the largest verdict for a single plaintiff in Florida state history, according to attorneys.

A state jury awarded the punitive damages Friday to the estate of Michael Johnson Sr., who died in 1996 from lung cancer after years of smoking cigarettes, attorney Christopher Chestnut told NBC News. Johnson’s estate previously won a $17 million verdict as compensation for his family’s loss.

“This jury sent a message and gave 23.6 billion reasons why you can’t lie to consumers,” said Chestnut, who along with attorney Willie Gary represent 400 cases in Florida against big tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds.

The Johnson case stems from a class-action lawsuit involving Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle, who sued the tobacco companies for misleading the public and government as to the dangers of smoking. He was awarded $145 billion in a landmark verdict in July 2000 — the largest punitive damage ever awarded in U.S. history at the time.

It was overturned in 2003 after an appeals court ruled that it shouldn’t have gone forward as a class-action suit. J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R.J. Reynolds, said the latest verdict of $23.6 billion was “far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness.” Raborn said the company plans to file post-trial motions to appeal the decision and verdict.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/florida-jury-awards-236-billion-verdict-big-tobacco-lawsuit

The young and poor are keeping big American tobacco alive

By Roberto A. Ferdman, The Washington Post

Big American tobacco wants to get bigger in America.

Reynolds American Inc., which sells both Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes, has agreed to acquire rival and Newport menthol-maker Lorillard for an estimated $27.4 billion. If approved, the deal will effectively combine the portfolios of two of the country’s largest cigarette companies—as of last year, Reynolds and Lorillard controlled roughly 26 percent and 14 percent of the U.S. market, respectively—and send a number of brands to the smaller but still significant player Imperial Tobacco Group.

“The deal strengthens Reynolds position in the US, supplying them with Newport’s excellent brand equity and establishes Imperial as a viable third force in the world’s third largest cigarette market by volume,” Shane MacGuill, Tobacco analyst at Euromonitor International, said in an interview.

The shuffle atop American tobacco is a sign that consolidation might be the industry’s best way to cope with the country’s growing disinterest in cigarettes. It also nods to a few areas of potential growth, most notably menthol cigarettes, for which sales have proven comparatively resilient—Newports, a menthol brand, is second only to Marlboro in U.S. sales.

The-most-popular-cigarette-brands-in-the-U-S-Cigarettes-sold-in-2013_chartbuilder

But the deal is also a surprising indication of optimism surrounding the U.S. industry.
“The U.S. is a key growth market for us,” Alison Cooper, Chief Executive for Imperial Tobacco Group, said in a call with reporters. “We’re hugely excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.”
Why? Because the American tobacco market, while challenged, is still more attractive than many of its international counterparts. The U.S. tobacco market contracted by four percent last year, according to the Food and Drug Administration, but cigarette sales in Europe are falling even faster—they are now nearly half what they were in 2000—and other markets are difficult to penetrate. China’s, while growing, is dominated by local player China National Tobacco Corp.
Make no mistake, cigarette consumption has long been in decline in the United States. Americans adults, on average, smoke fewer than 1,300 cigarettes per year, according to a report (pdf) released earlier this year by the Surgeon General. By comparison, that number was upwards of 4,200 in 1963–three times the current figure.

Tobacco-consumption-historical

But some states and demographics still seem to be clinging on to the habit–and keeping American tobacco companies afloat.

“Approximately one in five U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, and certain population groups have a higher prevalence of smoking,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted in a report from earlier this year.

On a state-by-state level, that certainly appears to be true. Take Kentucky and West Virginia, for instance, which each sport smoking rates well above the national average, according to the CDC’s report. More than 28 percent of Kentucky’s and West Virginia’s adult population were regular or frequent smokers as of 2012. In Utah, smokers made up barely more than 10 percent of the population; in California, just over 12 percent; and in New York, just over 16 percent. The national smoking rate was just above 18 percent.

Tobacco-by-state

Smoking, as it happens, also appears to be highly correlated with both poverty and education levels in the United States: 27.9 percent of American adults living below the poverty line are smokers, while just 17 percent of those living above it are, according to the CDC; 24.7 percent of American adults without a high school diploma are smokers, while 23.1 percent of those with one are. Only 9.1 percent of those with an undergraduate degree, and 5.9 percent of those with a graduate degree are smokers.

It ranges considerably by race, too. The CDC found that Americans of mixed race were the biggest smokers, with 26.1 percent still smoking cigarettes in 2012. Next were Native Americans, with 21.8 percent smoking. By comparison, only 10.7 of Asians smoked in 2012, according to the survey.
And cigarettes are most popular among those adults between the ages of 25 and 44 years old: 21.6 percent of the age group smokes, more than any other.
Tobacco-smokers
If the big tobacco deal is approved, Reynolds will suddenly find itself with more than 30 percent of the American market, and Imperial will find itself with more than 10 percent (Altria Group, which owns Marlboro, controls nearly 50 percent). Don’t be surprised if both turn to those Americans who have been slowest at kicking their respective cigarette habits for help.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/16/the-young-and-poor-are-keeping-the-u-s-tobacco-industry-alive/

Big Tobacco Looks to Keep Pace With E-Cigarettes

ABC News — NEW YORK June 17, 2014 (AP)

Tobacco companies are moving quickly to keep pace with the evolution of their industry by embracing the increasingly popular e-cigarettes and making them more available to consumers.

Reynolds American Inc., the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S., moved forward on its ambitious goal for sales, announcing Tuesday that next week it would begin distributing its Vuse brand electronic cigarette nationwide.

Altria Group Inc., which owns the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, is seeking to expand its MarkTen electronic cigarette brand nationally during the first half of the year.

Lorillard, the nation’s third-largest tobacco company, acquired e-cigarette maker Blu eCigs in April 2012. Blu now accounts for almost half of all e-cigarettes sold and can already be found nationwide.

Reynolds said Tuesday that retail outlets in all 50 states will be carrying Vuse starting on June 23. More stores will be added throughout the remainder of the year.

Reynolds launched Vuse in Colorado last summer and expanded into Utah earlier this year. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina company said that Vuse quickly became the top-selling brand in both states with high levels of repeat purchase.

Like other tobacco companies, Reynolds American is looking to capitalize on the fast-growing e-cigarette sales and to diversify its business more. To that end, the company announced last month that it was expanding its Tobaccoville, North Carolina manufacturing complex ahead of Vuse’s national rollout in order to meet anticipated market demand.

The market for e-cigarettes has grown from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide and reached nearly $2 billion in sales last year. The battery-powered devices heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. E-cigarette users say the devices address both the addictive and behavioral aspects of smoking without the thousands of chemicals found in regular cigarettes.

The Vuse can monitor and adjust heat and power to deliver the “perfect puff,” according to Reynolds American. It also has a smart light on the tip of to let users know when it’s getting low, needs to be replaced or recharged.

The country’s biggest tobacco companies have all entered the e-cigarette realm as they look to become less dependent on the traditional cigarette business, which is increasingly tougher to be a part of due to tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma.

But the growing popularity of e-cigarettes has left it open to closer examination by the government and health advocates. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed restrictions on the buying, packaging and advertising of e-cigarettes. This includes a ban on selling to minors and warning labels. The Senate will hold a hearing Wednesday to examine the marketing of e-cigarettes and potential consequences for minors.

Shares of Reynolds American shed 46 cents to $59.88 in midday trading, while Altria’s stock fell 12 cents to $41.69. Shares of Lorillard declined 59 cents to $61.39.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/reynolds-expanding-cigarette-nationally-24170948

Teens and young adults confronted by more TV ads for e-cigarettes

By: Karen Kaplan, LA Times

Commercials for electronic cigarettes have become so ubiquitous that millions of American teens have seen them since 2012, a new study says.

About 4 out of 5 of the TV ads seen by these young viewers were for blu eCigs, a brand that was purchased by tobacco giant Lorillard Inc. in April 2012. Though the ads are ostensibly aimed at adults, they employ language that makes e-cigarettes seem desirable to teens, researchers write in a study published Monday by the journal Pediatrics.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that allow users to inhale nicotine vapor. The devices have generated billions of dollars in sales but remain extremely controversial. Advocates for e-cigarettes like that the vapor contains fewer toxins than the smoke from traditional cigarettes, and some studies suggest they can help smokers kick the habit. But public health advocates contend that e-cigarettes get young people hooked on nicotine, increasing the risk that they will become regular smokers. The devices also undermine efforts to make smoking seem taboo and may make it harder for smokers to quit by keeping them hooked on nicotine, they say.

Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced its intention to prohibit sales of e-cigarettes to minors, the agency has not taken steps to limit advertising aimed at kids. The authors of the new report wanted to quantify how often teens and young adults saw e-cigarette ads on TV.

To do, so they turned to data from Nielsen, the company that keeps track of what Americans are watching. The data reported in the study was in the form of “target rating points,” or TRPS, a measurement that combines the proportion of viewers exposed to an ad and the number of times it may be seen.

The researchers found that nationally televised e-cigarette commercials were not particularly common through the first half of 2012. But in the second half of 2012 and the first nine months of 2013 – the period after Lorillard entered the industry – such advertising increased dramatically.

Between 2011 and 2013, the TRPs for viewers between the ages of 12 and 17 rose by 256%, according to the study. In the year that ended Sept. 30, 2013, those TRPs were high enough that 80% of teens could have seen 13 e-cigarette commercials, on average. Those TRPs also could work out to half of all teens viewing an average of 21 e-cigarette ads over the course of a year, or 10% of viewers watching an average of 105 commercials over a year.

The researchers also calculated the exposure for young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 and found that it increased by 321% between 2011 and 2013. The TRPs for this group were high enough to allow half of these young adults to see 35 e-cigarette commercials, on average, over the course of a year.

About 75% of these commercials aired on cable TV channels, including AMC (which aired 8% of them), Country Music Television (6.1%), Comedy Central (5.9%), WGN America (5.4%) TV Land and VH1 (both 5.3%), the study authors found. The commercials also ran during network shows that are popular among teens, including “The Bachelor,” “Big Brother” and “Survivor,” according to the study.

Among the nationally televised ads seen by teens, 82% were for blu eCigs, the data show. For young adult viewers, ads for blu eCigs accounted for 80% of the total.

The researchers also reported that 19 e-cigarette makers aired commercials in some local markets between 2011 and 2013. These ads aired in groups of cities that were home to as many as 40% of American teens.

The study authors expressed great concern over Lorillard’s ad campaign for blu eCigs. They noted that other studies have found a strong correlation between smoking in movies and the number of teens and young adults who pick up the habit. They also wrote that the ads were running at much higher frequency than the levels needed for anti-tobacco ads to influence teens that smoking is harmful.

The most widely aired blu eCig commercials featured actor Stephen Dorff. In one, he is seen smoking in restaurants, a taxi, a subway, at a rock concert, on a hike and even while riding his bike. In another, he ticks off the benefits of e-cigarettes versus traditional cigarettes and winds up by saying, “We’re all adults here. It’s time we take our freedom back.”

That kind of explicit reference to e-cigarettes being an adult product may seem like a responsible move by Lorillard, but it also serves to make the devices more appealing to teens, the study authors wrote.

The study was conducted by researchers at RTI International in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and a colleague at the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee. Funding was provided by the state’s Tobacco Free Florida program.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-electronic-cigarette-tv-advertising-20140602-story.html