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Biomedical subjects

K M Cummings

Publications and source records attributed to K M Cummings.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Mentholated cigarettes and smoking cessation: findings from COMMIT. Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between the use of menthol cigarettes and smoking cessation, amount smoked, and time to first cigarette in the morning. BACKGROUND: The majority of African American smokers smoke mentholated cigarettes. Some evidence suggests that African Americans may be more nicotine dependent than whites. One theory is that menthol in cigarettes is responsible for enhancing the dependence producing capacity of cigarettes; however, few studies have prospectively examined the association between menthol use and indicators of nicotine dependence. METHODS: Baseline smokers from the Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT) completed a telephone tobacco use survey in 1988 and were re-interviewed in 1993. Use of mentholated cigarettes was assessed by self report at baseline. Indicators of dependence examined were six month cessation in 1993, amount smoked among continuing smokers in 1993, and time to first cigarette in the morning in 1988. Multivariate regression techniques were used to assess the association of baseline menthol use with these outcomes while controlling for other factors related to dependence. RESULTS: Overall, 24% of the sample smoked a mentholated brand in 1988. No consistent associations were observed for menthol use and indicators of dependence in both overall and race specific analyses. Factors significantly associated with increased menthol use were female sex, age 25-34 years, African American and Asian race/ethnicity, greater education, greater than 60 minutes to the first cigarette in the morning, two or more past quit attempts, and use of premium brand cigarettes. Canadian respondents and those who smoked 15-24 cigarettes per day had lower rates of menthol use. Use of mentholated cigarettes was not associated with quitting, amount smoked, or time to first cigarette in the morning. CONCLUSION: Future work is needed to clarify the physiological and sociocultural mechanisms involved in mentholated cigarette smoking.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Tobacco Institute lobbying at the state and local levels of government in the 1990s.

OBJECTIVE: To describe variation in Tobacco Institute (TI) lobbying expenditures across states and test whether these expenditures vary in relationship to measures of tobacco control activity at the state level. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Data for this study came from the TI's State Activities Division (SAD) annual budgets for the years 1991-97, excluding 1993. These data include budgetary information pertaining to state and local lobbying activity and special projects reported by state. DEPENDENT VARIABLES: The following measures of state tobacco control activity during the period 1991 to 1997 were considered: (1) American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) funding; (2) voter initiatives to raise cigarette taxes; (3) cigarette excise tax level; (4) workplace smoking restrictions; (5) the intensification of smoke-free air laws covering private worksites, government worksites, and restaurants; (6) the intensification of strength of sales to minors laws; (7) the intensification of strength of laws that punish minors for possessing, purchasing, and/or using cigarettes; (8) state status as a major grower of tobacco; (9) partisan control of state government, 1996; and (10) an overall composite index reflecting a state's strength of tobacco control, combining cigarette prices with workplace and home smoking bans. RESULTS: The overall annual budget for the TI declined steadily during the 1990s, from $47.7 million in 1991 to $28.1 million by 1996. The proportion of the TI's budget allocated to the SAD remained relatively stable at about 30%. TI expenditures for lobbyists were highest in California where tobacco control activity has been strong for the past decade. We found significant associations between TI SAD expenditures and cigarette excise tax levels, the status of a state as a recipient of federal ASSIST funds, and changes in the strength of statewide laws that penalise minors for possessing, purchasing, and/or using cigarettes. We found little or no association between state and local lobbying budgets of the TI and changes in statewide smoke-free air laws, although we did find evidence of TI special project expenditures earmarked to specific states and localities to resist clean indoor air legislation/regulations (that is, Maryland and New York City). We found no significant correlation between TI lobbying expenditures and sales to minors' laws, status as a major producer of tobacco, or partisan control of state government. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study support the hypothesis that in the 1990s tobacco control activities such as raising cigarette excise taxes and participation in ASSIST attracted TI resources to undermine these efforts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Failed promises of the cigarette industry and its effect on consumer misperceptions about the health risks of smoking.

BACKGROUND: In January 1954, US tobacco manufacturers jointly sponsored an advocacy advertisement entitled "A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers" which appeared in 448 newspapers in 258 cities reaching an estimated 43 245 000 Americans. The advertisement questioned research findings implicating smoking as a cause of cancer, promised consumers that their cigarettes were safe, and pledged to support impartial research to investigate allegations that smoking was harmful to human health. OBJECTIVE: To examine (1) the extent to which cigarette companies fulfilled the promises made to consumers in the 1954 "Frank Statement", and (2) the effect of these promises on consumer knowledge, beliefs, and smoking practices. METHODS: This study reviews statements made since 1954 by the tobacco companies individually and collectively through the Tobacco Institute and Tobacco Industry Research Committee/Council for Tobacco Research on the subject of smoking as a cause disease, and the industry's pledge to support and disclose the results of impartial research on smoking and health. Many of the industry documents evaluated in this study were obtained from a collection consisting of 116 documents entitled the "Statement of Defendants' Misrepresentations" prepared by attorneys representing the state of Connecticut in the Medicaid litigation against the tobacco industry in 1998. In addition, we searched for corroborating material from tobacco industry documents collected from the tobacco industry's document websites. In order to contrast industry statements on smoking and health with what smokers' actually believed about smoking we reviewed reports of public polling data on smokers' knowledge and beliefs about smoking and disease gathered from tobacco industry sources and from surveys conducted by public health researchers. RESULTS: Analysis of public statements issued by the tobacco industry sources over the past five decades shows that the companies maintained the stance that smoking had not been proven to be injurious to health through 1999. The public statements of the tobacco industry are in sharp contrast to the private views expressed by many of their own scientists. The tobacco documents reveal that many scientists within the tobacco industry acknowledged as early as the 1950s that cigarette smoking was unsafe. The sincerity of the industry's promise to support research to find out if smoking was harmful to health and to disclose information about the health effects of smoking can also be questioned based upon the industry's own documents which reveal: (1) scepticism about the scientific value of the smoking and health research program established by the industry; and (2) evidence that research findings implicating smoking as a health problem were often not published or disclosed outside the industry. Industry documents also show that the companies knew that their own customers were misinformed about smoking and health issues. CONCLUSION: It is clear that the cigarette companies failed to fulfill the promises made to consumers in the 1954 "Frank Statement" advertisement. The failure of cigarette manufacturers to honour these promises has resulted in a public that even today remains misinformed about the health risks of smoking.

Consumer Product Safety↗
PubMed2002

Marketing to America's youth: evidence from corporate documents.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the claim that the tobacco industry does not market its products to youth. DESIGN: The data for this study come from tobacco industry documents collected from the tobacco industry's document websites, presently linked at http://www.tobaccoarchives.com. The websites were searched using "request for production" (RFP) codes, specified keyword searches, and serendipitous terms identified in document citations found with RFP and keyword searches. RESULTS: Industry documents show that the cigarette manufacturers carefully monitored the smoking habits of teenagers over the past several decades. Candid quotes from industry executives refer to youth as a source of sales and as fundamental to the survival of the tobacco industry. The documents reveal that the features of cigarette brands (that is, use of filters, low tar, bland taste, etc), packaging (that is, size, colour and design), and advertising (that is, media placements and themes and imagery) were developed specifically to appeal to new smokers (that is, teenagers). Evidence also indicates that relevant youth oriented marketing documents may have been destroyed and that the language used in some of the more recent documents may have been sanitised to cover up efforts to market to youth. CONCLUSIONS: The tobacco industry's internal documents reveal an undeniable interest in marketing cigarettes to underage smokers. The industry's marketing approaches run counter to and predicate methods for tobacco prevention: (1) keep the price of the product high; (2) keep product placements and advertising away from schools and other areas with a high volume of youth traffic; (3) make cigarette advertising (that is, themes and visual images) unappealing to youth; (4) make product packaging unappealing to youth; and (5) design the product so it is not easy to inhale.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Cigarettes with defective filters marketed for 40 years: what Philip Morris never told smokers.

BACKGROUND: More than 90% of the cigarettes sold worldwide have a filter. Nearly all filters consist of a rod of numerous ( > 12 000) plastic-like cellulose acetate fibres. During high speed cigarette manufacturing procedures, fragments of cellulose acetate that form the mouthpiece of a filter rod become separated from the filter at the end face. The cut surface of the filter of nearly all cigarettes has these fragments. In smoking a cigarette in the usual manner, some of these fragments are released during puffing. In addition to the cellulose acetate fragments, carbon particles are released also from some cigarette brands that have a charcoal filter. Cigarettes with filters that release cellulose acetate or carbon particles during normal smoking conditions are defective. OBJECTIVE: Specific goals were to review systematically the writings of tobacco companies to: (a) identify papers that would document the existence of defective filters; (b) characterise the extent of the defect; (c) establish when the defect became known; (d) determine whether the defect exists on cigarettes marketed currently; (e) assess the prevalence of the defect on cigarettes manufactured by different companies; (f) define whether the knowledge of the defect had been withheld by the tobacco company as confidential and not disclosed publicly; and (g) ascertain the feasibility of correcting or preventing the defect. METHODS: Document searches utilised databases of the scientific literature, medical journals, chemical abstracts, US Patents, Tobacco Abstracts, papers presented at tobacco meetings and court documents. RESULTS: Sixty one documents of Philip Morris, Inc were selected for study because they disclosed specifically the "fall-out" of cellulose acetate filter fibres and, for cigarettes with charcoal filters, carbon particles from cigarette filters. The term "fall-out" was defined in 1985 laboratory protocols of Philip Morris, Inc. as "loose fibers (or particles) that are drawn out of the filter during puffing of the cigarette". As early as 1957, the health concern of inhaling cellulose acetate fibres released from cigarette filters was addressed by Philip Morris, Inc. A 1962 document reported the results of laboratory tests conducted by Phillip Morris, Inc that compared the "fall-out" of cellulose acetate fibres from the filters of their cigarettes (Marlboro) and cigarettes of their competitor (Liggett & Meyers). A 1997 overview by Phillip Morris of documents addressing the "fallout of carbon particles and cellulose acetate fibers from filters" stated that they were "essentially routine reports" of cigarette filter assays, and referenced a "Filter Fallout" memo written in 1961-more than 40 years ago. Most likely these tests are being conducted presently as illustrated by a 1999 report that details the revisions of the "fall-out" protocol of Phillip Morris, Inc and reports the results of tests that measured the discharge of cellulose acetate fibres and silica gel from beta cigarettes with a new type of filter. Our analysis of the "fall-out" tests results presented in the 61 "fall-out" documents showed that filter fibres and carbon particles were discharged from the filters of all types of cigarettes tested. These cigarette types (n = 130) included both coded cigarettes and popular brand name cigarettes. No publications were found in the scientific literature of the "fall-out" studies. Thus, the results of the "fall-out" studies are thought to have been withheld as confidential to Philip Morris, Inc. We have identified also other companies that have tested recently cigarettes for defective filters. In addition, our searches have shown that simple, expedient, and inexpensive technologies for decontaminating cigarette filters of loose cellulose acetate fibres and particles from the cut surface of the filter have been developed and described in 1997 and 1998 US patents. What is more important is that these patents also define methods for preventing or reducing the broken plastic-like fibres that arise during cigarette making. Many US patents (n = 607; 1957 to 2001) have been awarded for cigarette filters. Some of these inventions describe novel materials and unique filtration schemes that would eliminate or minimise the discharge of filter materials into mainstream smoke. CONCLUSIONS: We have shown that: (a) the filter of today's cigarette is defective; (b) Philip Morris, Inc has known of this filter defect for more than 40 years; (c) the existence of this filter defect has been confirmed by others in independent studies; (d) many methods exist to prevent and correct the filter defect, but have not been implemented; and (e) results of investigations substantiating defective filters have been concealed from the smoker and the health community. The tobacco industry has been negligent in not performing toxicological examinations and other studies to assess the human health risks associated with regularly ingesting and inhaling non-degradable, toxin coated cellulose acetate fragments and carbon microparticles and possibly other components that are released from conventional cigarette filters during normal smoking. The rationale for harm assessment is supported by the results of consumer surveys that have shown that the ingestion or inhalation of cigarette filter fibres are a health concern to nearly all smokers.

Carbon Dioxide↗
PubMed2002

Tax, price and cigarette smoking: evidence from the tobacco documents and implications for tobacco company marketing strategies.

OBJECTIVE: To examine tobacco company documents to determine what the companies knew about the impact of cigarette prices on smoking among youth, young adults, and adults, and to evaluate how this understanding affected their pricing and price related marketing strategies. METHODS: Data for this study come from tobacco industry documents contained in the Youth and Marketing database created by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and available through http:// roswell.tobaccodocuments.org, supplemented with documents obtained from http://www.tobaccodocuments.org. RESULTS: Tobacco company documents provide clear evidence on the impact of cigarette prices on cigarette smoking, describing how tax related and other price increases lead to significant reductions in smoking, particularly among young persons. This information was very important in developing the industry's pricing strategies, including the development of lower price branded generics and the pass through of cigarette excise tax increases, and in developing a variety of price related marketing efforts, including multi-pack discounts, couponing, and others. CONCLUSIONS: Pricing and price related promotions are among the most important marketing tools employed by tobacco companies. Future tobacco control efforts that aim to raise prices and limit price related marketing efforts are likely to be important in achieving reductions in tobacco use and the public health toll caused by tobacco.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

The cigarette pack as image: new evidence from tobacco industry documents.

OBJECTIVES: To gain an understanding of the role of pack design in tobacco marketing. METHODS: A search of tobacco company document sites using a list of specified search terms was undertaken during November 2000 to July 2001. RESULTS: Documents show that, especially in the context of tighter restrictions on conventional avenues for tobacco marketing, tobacco companies view cigarette packaging as an integral component of marketing strategy and a vehicle for (a) creating significant in-store presence at the point of purchase, and (b) communicating brand image. Market testing results indicate that such imagery is so strong as to influence smoker's taste ratings of the same cigarettes when packaged differently. Documents also reveal the careful balancing act that companies have employed in using pack design and colour to communicate the impression of lower tar or milder cigarettes, while preserving perceived taste and "satisfaction". Systematic and extensive research is carried out by tobacco companies to ensure that cigarette packaging appeals to selected target groups, including young adults and women. CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette pack design is an important communication device for cigarette brands and acts as an advertising medium. Many smokers are misled by pack design into thinking that cigarettes may be "safer". There is a need to consider regulation of cigarette packaging.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Increasing taxes as a strategy to reduce cigarette use and deaths: results of a simulation model.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop a simulation model to predict the effects of taxes on the smoking rate and smoking-attributable deaths. METHODS: The model projects the number of smokers and smoking-related deaths from a baseline year forward. The effects of taxes of different sizes, indexed and unindexed, and temporary vs sustained are modeled. RESULTS: The model predicts that sustained tax increases have the potential to substantially reduce the number of smokers and the number of premature deaths, with the effects growing over time. Indexing taxes to inflation stems erosion of the tax effect. CONCLUSIONS: Tax hikes have the ability to substantially affect smoking rates in the near term. These effects grow over time and lead to substantial savings in lives and health care costs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

The impact of untruthful age reporting during tobacco compliance checks.

A pilot study consisting of 76 compliance checks was conducted in October 1998 in Chautauqua County, New York, by a 15-year-old white female. Half of the merchants were randomized to be checked under a standard protocol whereby the minor was instructed to answer truthfully when asked about her age. The remaining stores were checked under a new protocol that permitted the minor to state that she was 18 years old if asked about her age. It was found that untruthful age reporting during compliance checks has little impact on the overall compliance rate.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

A simulation of the effects of youth initiation policies on overall cigarette use.

OBJECTIVES: We developed a simulation model to predict the effects of policies aimed at reducing smoking initiation by youths younger than 18 years. METHODS: The model projected the number of smokers, never smokers, and ex-smokers by age, sex, and racial/ethnic group and the effects of reductions in youth initiation. RESULTS: The model predicted that even if tobacco policies eliminated youth initiation, the number of smokers would not be halved for more than 30 years. If initiation were halved and some of the initiation were delayed rather than eliminated, substantially smaller reductions would result. CONCLUSIONS: Policies that increase cessation rates are needed to reduce the number of current smokers and the more near-term health problems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Consumer perception of risk associated with filters contaminated with glass fibers.

The filters in Eclipse, a new cigarette-like smoking article marketed by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, are contaminated with glass fibers, fragments, and particles. Reported herein are the results of a study in which consumers were questioned about their opinions as to whether exposure to glass fibers in such a filter poses an added health risk beyond that from smoking and whether the manufacturer has an obligation to inform consumers about the glass contamination problem. The study queried 137 adults who were interviewed while waiting at a Division of Motor Vehicles office in Erie County, New York in 1997. All but one person expressed the view that the presence of glass fibers on the filters poses an added health risk beyond that associated with exposure to tobacco smoke alone. Nearly all expressed the position that the cigarette manufacturer has a duty to inform the public about the potential for glass exposure.

Adult↗