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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Jean Forster, PhD, MPH, Rachel Widome, PhD, and Deborah Bernat, PhD. Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, 612-626-8870, forster@epi.umn.edu

While clean indoor air (CIA) policies have been in existence for more than thirty years, the number, strength and breadth of these laws have dramatically escalated in recent years. Growing evidence suggests that CIA policies can have a powerful negative effect on smoking uptake by adolescents, by reducing the visibility of role-models who smoke, limiting the opportunities for youth to smoke alone or in groups and to exchange cigarettes with other smokers, and diminishing the perceived social acceptability of smoking. Smoking bans are associated with less progression to smoking, less consolidation of experimental into regular smoking, and more quitting among adolescents.

Research has shown that sales of tobacco to youth can be reduced through active enforcement of laws restricting such sales. However research examining whether these policies reduce youth smoking has yielded mixed results. An increase in the use of social sources has been linked to greater commercial restrictions, but youth who use social sources are less likely to intensify their smoking than those who use commercial sources for cigarettes. Another tactic aimed at reducing youth access is penalizing youth for possession, use and purchase (PUP) of tobacco. Currently there is no evidence that PUP enforcement reduces youth smoking rates.

Since 2002 41 states and the District of Columbia have adopted 57 excise tax increases, averaging 48¢ for each increase. Decades of econometric research show that smokers are price-sensitive, and that increasing the price of cigarettes reduces demand. The largest effects of price are seen in heavier smokers, older age

Learning Objectives:

• See session abstract

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation