Medical School Researchers Criticize Campaigns Intended to Get Smokers to Quit

In a shocking and ironic development, a group of medical school researchers has attacked efforts to promote smoking cessation among adult smokers. Previously, I have only seen such an inappropriate attack coming from the tobacco companies. That in 2016, such an attack is coming from people in medicine, and not from Big Tobacco, is a surprising and troubling irony.In this month ' s issue ofPreventing Chronic Disease, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louisargue that: " Vaping poses a threat to smoking prevention progress, and it is important for those in tobacco control to understand and counter the tactics used by vaping companies to entice their consumers, especially on social media where young people can easily view the content. "They also argue that " the online use of price discounts or coupons that we observed on Twitter is a concerning practice from an industry that is rapidly growing and evolving. "Furthermore, the authors warned that: " We observed the promotion of flavored e-juices and images of colorful vape pens in our sample of tweets; these promotions and images could grab the attention of potential consumers and entice them to initiate use of these products. "In the introduction to the paper, the authors state that their primary objective in examining tweets about e-cigarettes and vaping is to investigate the marketing of e-cigarettes to young adults. They note that 32% of users are aged 18 to 29 years. Thus, this young adult g...

Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - October 3, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs