New Products
Old Tricks
The Problem
Victoria Almquist
Director, Outreach
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
valmquist@tobaccofreekids.org
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
www.tobaccofreekids.org
What’s the Problem with
New Products?
• New tobacco products are designed to:
– Draw in new and youth users
– Keep smokers smoking
• These goals are achieved by:
– Skirting marketing restrictions that are imposed
on cigarettes
– Evading higher taxes
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Increased youth smokeless tobacco use
Harms from other tobacco use
TOLL OF OTHER TOBACCO USE
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National Youth Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco Use
1997 - 2011
40%
37.7%
35%
36.4%
All High School Students Smokeless Tobacco Use
High School Males Smokeless Use
All High School Students Cigarette Smoking
High School Males Cigarette Smoking
30%
25%
2003-2009: -11.0%
2003-2011: -17.4%
21.8%
19.8%
21.9%
20%
19.5%
15%
15.8%
19.9%
18.1%
15.0%
10%
8.9%
6.7%
5%
2003-2009: +36.4%
12.8% 2003-2011: +16.4%
11.0%
9.3%
2003-2009: -9.2%
2003-2011: -8.7%
7.7%
2003-2009: +32.8%
2003-2011: +14.9%
0%
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
Source: CDC, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey.
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National Youth Cigar and Cigarette Smoking
2001-2011
30%
Total High School Students Cigar Smoking
28.5%
High School Girls Cigar Smoking
High School Boys Cigar Smoking
All High School Students Cigarette Smoking
25%
21.9%
20%
22.1%
19.5%
19.9%
18.6%
15.2%
15%
10%
8.5%
14.8%
14.0%
18.1%
17.8%
2003-2009: -11.0%
2003-2011: -17.4%
2003-2009: -6.5%
2003-2011: -10.6%
13.1%
2003-2009: -5.4%
2003-2011: -11.5%
9.4%
8.8%
8.0%
2003-2009: -6.4%
2003-2011: -14.9%
5%
0%
2001
2003
Source: CDC, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey.
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2005
2007
2009
2011
5
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Use of flavors
Circumventing cigarette regulations
New smokeless, spit-less products
ATTRACTING NEW AND YOUTH USERS
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CAMEL AND MARLBORO FLAVOR CAPSULE CIGARETTES
CAMEL CRUSH
MARLBORO NXT
7
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So-Called “Little Cigars”
(not to be confused with legitimate little cigars)
So-Called “Little
Cigars”
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Legitimate Little
Cigars
Cigarettes
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Cheap Flavored “Little or Filtered Cigars”
$10.69 per carton = $1.07 per pack
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Flavored Blunt Wraps
But what they’re
really used for…
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“…the use of smokeless tobacco products is
not a safe alternative to smoking, nor is there
evidence to suggest that it is effective in
helping smokers quit.”
-- U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guidelines, 2008
New smokeless, spit-less products
KEEPING SMOKERS SMOKING
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High School Student describing using Camel Snus:
“It’s easy, it’s super-discreet…and none of the teachers
will ever know what I’m doing.”
Kansas City Star, October 31, 2007
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Camel recently
introduced 2 new
flavors of Snus:
Winterchill and
Robust
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Philip Morris USA’s Marlboro Snus
Redesigned Pack in early 2009
to fit “perfectly alongside your
smokes” – to prevent smokers
from quitting.
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R.J. Reynolds’ Camel Dissolvables
Original packs test-marketed in Columbus,
OH, Portland, OR, and Indianapolis, IN
starting in January 2009.
Redesigned the pack to be LESS childresistant and re-released products in
two new test markets, Denver and
Charlotte, beginning March 2011.
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19
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New Forms of Smokeless, Spitless Tobacco Put Users and Children At Risk
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Philip Morris USA’s Marlboro & Skoal Sticks
Four flavors being test-marketed in select Kansas stores since March 2011.
Marlboro Sticks are being placed with cigarettes and Skoal Sticks are being placed
with smokeless tobacco products.
Resemblance to:
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“As the state’s health agency, KDHE is particularly concerned about the potential appeal
of these new tobacco sticks to youth,” KDHE Secretary Dr. Robert Moser said. “The
packages are so small that they could easily be concealed in a shirt or pants pocket and
youth could use tobacco sticks in front of parents or teachers while appearing to have a
simple toothpick in their mouth. We are also concerned about the risk of young children
accidentally ingesting these products.”
22
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Altria’s Newest Smokeless Product: VERVE
Announced in May 2012 and will be
test-marketed in select Sheetz stores
in Virginia.
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Millions
Cigarette marketing expenditures declined
between 2005 and 2008, but smokeless tobacco
marketing expenditures more than doubled
between 2005 and 2008.
$600
$547.9
$500
$400
$411.2
$354.1
$300
$200
$100
$224.6
$145.5
$236.7
$234.6
$242.5
$231.1
$170.2
$250.8
118.5% increase since 2005
$0
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
These data are based on the most recent official data available from the federal government. The most recent available marketing data for smokeless tobacco is for
2008 and comes from the FTC’s Smokeless Tobacco Report for 2007 and 2008.
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Price Differences
HOW INDUSTRY ACHIEVES THE GOAL
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Why Keep Prices Lower?
• Lower prices are more accessible, affordable,
and appealing to youth
– Draws them in to a lifetime of addiction
– Can lead to smoking, the big money-maker for the
tobacco industry
• Promotes dual use and hinders quit attempts
– Smokers can buy fewer cigarettes by using other
products sometimes
– Why quit because cigarettes are more expensive
when you can temporarily substitute with OTPs?
26
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Pushing Weight-Based Taxes
What they claim:
• Losing market share to competitors
with cheaper products that pay less tax.
• It’s a fair tax for all smokeless products.
What Weight-Based really means:
• New light-weight products (i.e., snus,
dissolvables, and sticks) will pay
pennies, if that, in tax.
• Premium products, which are most
popular with youth, would get a tax
break, while cheap products would get
a tax increase (thus it’s unfair for
cheaper products).
• Over time, states will lose revenue as
the value of the tax erodes with
inflation and product price increases.
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What is a Hookah?
A waterpipe
Figure courtesy Dr. Alan Shihadeh, American University of Beirut
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SOME INFO ABOUT HOOKAH USE
• 2010 MTF survey found that 17% of 12th graders had smoked a hookah in the past month.
Studies of college students have found rates as high as 20% for past month and 48% for lifetime
usage.
• Hookah pipes used in hookah bars and cafes may not be cleaned properly, risking the spread of
infectious diseases. In 2008, Colorado State University reported an outbreak of Herpes among
hookah users, and hookah use was suspected in the spread of TB in Egypt.
• There is a common misconception that smoking through a hookah and being exposed to
secondhand hookah smoke is not as dangerous as smoking cigarettes or being exposed to SHS
from cigarettes.
• According to researchers at the Mayo clinic, hookah smokers are exposed to more carbon
monoxide and smoke than are cigarette smokers. Hookah smoking sessions typically last an hour.
• A study conducted by UCSF and published on 4-18-13 showed that while hookah users had half
the amount of nicotine in their systems, they had 2.5 times the amount of carbon monoxide
(breath test) and 2 times the amount of benzene (metabolite test).
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Policy changes that would help address hookah use
• Close loopholes that exempt hookah bars from clean indoor air laws.
• State laws should include hookahs in the definition of smoking. This would
help eliminate exemptions in clean indoor air laws.
• FDA should assert authority over hookah tobacco.
• Federal, state and local laws can be used to prohibit the use of flavorings
in hookah tobacco.
• Close loopholes in laws and enforce existing laws about sales of hookah
tobacco and paraphernalia to minors.
• States and localities can use zoning and licensure rules to limit or eliminate
hookah lounges.
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Questions?
Victoria Almquist
Director, Outreach
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
valmquist@tobaccofreekids.org
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
www.tobaccofreekids.org