Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products

Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2015-07-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309316278

Tobacco use by adolescents and young adults poses serious concerns. Nearly all adults who have ever smoked daily first tried a cigarette before 26 years of age. Current cigarette use among adults is highest among persons aged 21 to 25 years. The parts of the brain most responsible for cognitive and psychosocial maturity continue to develop and change through young adulthood, and adolescent brains are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of nicotine. At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products considers the likely public health impact of raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products. The report reviews the existing literature on tobacco use patterns, developmental biology and psychology, health effects of tobacco use, and the current landscape regarding youth access laws, including minimum age laws and their enforcement. Based on this literature, the report makes conclusions about the likely effect of raising the minimum age to 19, 21, and 25 years on tobacco use initiation. The report also quantifies the accompanying public health outcomes based on findings from two tobacco use simulation models. According to the report, raising the minimum age of legal access to tobacco products, particularly to ages 21 and 25, will lead to substantial reductions in tobacco use, improve the health of Americans across the lifespan, and save lives. Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products will be a valuable reference for federal policy makers and state and local health departments and legislators.

NCADI Publications Catalog

NCADI Publications Catalog
Author: National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (U.S.).
Publisher:
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2001
Genre: Government publications
ISBN:

Regulating Tobacco

Regulating Tobacco
Author: Robert L. Rabin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2001-10-25
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0195349024

The proliferation of lawsuits against the tobacco industry has had profound implications for American health policy, tort law, civil law, and welfare and social policy. Since the publication of Rabin and Sugarman's Smoking Policy, class action suits, FDA regulation, clean air legislation, health insurance reimbursement, and extensive advertising have brought tobacco to the forefront of national and public policy debates. This collection includes essays by eleven leading public health experts, economists, physicians, political scientists, and lawyers, whose activities encompass Congressional testimonies, Surgeon General's reports on youth smoking, and clinical trials for drugs for smoking cessation. They analyze specific strategies that have been used to influence tobacco use--including taxation, regulation of advertising and promotion, regulation of indoor smoking, control of youth access to cigarettes and other tobacco products, litigation, and subsidies of smoking cessation--and set them against the latest scientific findings about tobacco use and the changing cultural and political setting against which policy decisions are being made. In addition to Rabin and Sugarman, contributors include Frank Chaloupka, Peter Jacobson, Robert Kagan, Nancy Rigotti, John Slade, and Ken Warner.

Reducing Underage Drinking

Reducing Underage Drinking
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 761
Release: 2004-03-26
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309089352

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

MMWR.

MMWR.
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 496
Release: 1999
Genre: Diseases
ISBN:

Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market

Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0309317150

Tobacco use has declined because of measures such as high taxes on tobacco products and bans on advertising, but worldwide there are still more than one billion people who regularly use tobacco, including many who purchase products illicitly. By contrast to many other commodities, taxes comprise a substantial portion of the retail price of cigarettes in the United States and most other nations. Large tax differentials between jurisdictions increase incentives for participation in existing illicit tobacco markets. In the United States, the illicit tobacco market consists mostly of bootlegging from low-tax states to high-tax states and is less affected by large-scale smuggling or illegal production as in other countries. In the future, nonprice regulation of cigarettes - such as product design, formulation, and packaging - could in principle, contribute to the development of new types of illicit tobacco markets. Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market reviews the nature of illicit tobacco markets, evidence for policy effects, and variations among different countries with a focus on implications for the United States. This report estimates the portion of the total U.S. tobacco market represented by illicit sales has grown in recent years and is now between 8.5 percent and 21 percent. This represents between 1.24 to 2.91 billion packs of cigarettes annually and between $2.95 billion and $6.92 billion in lost gross state and local tax revenues. Understanding the U.S. Illicit Tobacco Market describes the complex system associated with illicit tobacco use by exploring some of the key features of that market - the cigarette supply chain, illicit procurement schemes, the major actors in the illicit trade, and the characteristics of users of illicit tobacco. This report draws on domestic and international experiences with the illicit tobacco trade to identify a range of possible policy and enforcement interventions by the U.S. federal government and/or states and localities.