Analyzing data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics debates whether e cigarettes could be encouraging the use of conventional cigarettes in adolescents.

Recently, Medical News Today ran a feature examining the boom in popularity of e cigarettes, which some experts believe will become more widely used than conventional cigarettes by the next decade.

In that feature, we also debated the conflicting data on e cigarettes from scientific studies and looked at how these currently unregulated products might be controlled in the future.

Many observers have commented that e cigarettes are sold and promoted in a way that is similar to how cigarettes were aggressively marketed in the 1950s and 1960s, before cigarette advertising was banned from television and radio.

But in addition to these traditional media, e cigarettes have a strong advertising presence on the internet, where they can be purchased.

This raises concerns over the accessibility of these devices to children. E cigarettes are also sold in strawberry, licorice and chocolate flavors. These kind of flavorings are banned in conventional cigarettes in the US because they appeal to children.

The National Youth Tobacco Survey 2011 12

The new study analyzed National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) data from 2011 and 2012 to see what the relationship is between e cigarette use and conventional cigarette smoking in American adolescents.

It is difficult to say whether adolescents are beginning to smoke with conventional cigarettes and then moving on to e cigarettes, or whether it is the other way around.

The NYTS shows that e cigarette use doubled among adolescents in grades 6 through 12 between 2011 and 2012, from 3.3% of adolescents to 6.8%. The survey also reported that 76.3% of e cigarette users also smoke conventional cigarettes.

The researchers found that adolescents who had ever used an e cigarette were more likely to have smoked at least 100 conventional cigarettes and be current smokers than adolescents who had never used an e cigarette.

Adolescents who use e cigarettes were also less likely to abstain from using conventional cigarettes over 30 day, 6 month and 1 year periods.

This challenges the assumption that e cigarettes are effective as tools for quitting smoking which has been a major claim attributed to these products. The researchers found there was no significant association between using e cigarettes and attempting to quit smoking.

It is difficult to say whether adolescents are beginning to smoke with conventional cigarettes and then moving on to e cigarettes, or whether it is the other way round. This study can only report a link between conventional cigarette and e cigarette use. But the authors do conclude that “e cigarettes are not discouraging use of conventional cigarettes.”

E cigarettes may also contribute to nicotine addiction, according to the researchers, who consider that the still developing adolescent brain may be more at risk from the adverse effects of nicotine than adults.

In an editorial linked to the study, Frank J. Chaloupka PhD of the University of Illinois at Chicago, says

“While much remains to be learned about the public health benefits and/or consequences of electronic nicotine delivery systems use, their exponential growth in recent years, including their rapid uptake among youths, makes it clear that policy makers need to act quickly.

Adopting the right mix of policies will be critical to minimizing potential risks to public health while maximizing the potential benefits.”

Written by David McNamee

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Snopes.com: marlboro m brand marijuana cigarettes

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and trademarking potential brand names such as “Panama Red” and “Acapulco Gold.” Such rumors were nothing more than the product of fanciful imagination and wishful thinking, but now that state of Colorado has legalized marijuana use, and more states are sure to follow, those claims no longer sound quite so far fetched.

Those rumors of old were played upon in a 21 January 2014 article from Abril Uno positing that tobacco giant Phillip Morris had announced the company would be entering the marijuana cigarette market with a brand called “Marlboro M” Phillip Morris, the world’s biggest cigarette producer, announced today that they will join the marijuana legalization bandwagon and start producing marijuana cigarettes. To be marketed under the brand “Marlboro M”, it will be made available for sale through marijuana licensed outlets in the state of Colorado, and Washington when it becomes commercially legal later this year.

Serafin Norcik, Phillip Morris’ Sr. Vice President for Marketing said in an interview that the company has been high on the idea of marketing cannabis, and has been monitoring the market for some time. It was only when the recent legalization initiatives winning in Colorado and Washington that they finally made the decision to take a leap of faith. By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media and re posted on other web sites, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news item. However, this article was just a spoof from the Abril Uno web site, whose name translates as “April One” (i.e., April Fool’s Day). Disclaimers on the web site’s pages notes that Abril Uno is a satire, parody and spoof web publication. Abril Uno uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases where public figures or companies are being satirized, parodied or spoofed. Any resemblance to the truth, actual events, actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and is intended purely as a satire, parody or spoof. All articles contained herein are fiction (“fake”), untrue, and for entertainment only. Last updated 23 January 2014

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