Description of the African Cigarette Prices Project Data.

The African Cigarette Price Project is a project that collects tobacco prices from African countries. Amongst other things, the data enable users to estimate price differences across brands, urban/rural divides, types of packaging, retail types, and trends in price over time. A total of 215 354 individual prices were collected during the first twelve rounds of the project (collected biannually from 2016 to 2022). Data collection continues to date. Data have been collected from 19 African countries, with most data from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana. Other countries include Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Chad, Eswatini, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Kenya, Mauritius, Uganda and Cameroon. The project employs a novel data collection approach, by contracting local and international University of Cape Town (UCT) students as fieldworkers to collect price data while at home over the long university vacation. The data were collected at the retail level; the lowest level of geographic detail available in the public use dataset is the suburb. While the price data are not nationally representative, the data collection method is simple and affordable and provides an indication of the range of prices and the brands available in the respective countries. While cigarette prices make up the bulk of the data, other common tobacco products included are hookah tobacco, snuff, pipe tobacco, cigars, e-cigarettes, hand-rolled tobacco, and others. The collection of these other tobacco products started in round 4 (2017).

Review of natural radioactivity in tobacco cigarette brands.

Cigarettes smoking are leading causes of lung cancer in the world. In several countries, the radioactivity of tobaccos cigarette brands has been evaluated to estimate the effective dose from smoking inhalation. In this paper, we have reviewed 40 researched papers of radioactivity in tobacco cigarette brands by searching specified databases from various search engines such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct and PubMed for the studies published between the year 2000 and November, 2023 in English language. Results show that, the arithmetic mean and range of radioactivity concentration in mBq/g were 20.4 (0.4-128.6), 15.4 (2.0-78.8), 630.8 (1.2-1330.0), 8.1 (0.3-41.0), 15.2 (0.2-82.0) and 5.9 (2.0-16.0) from 210Po, 210Pb, 40K, 232Th and 232U and 226Ra, respectively. The annual effective doses were also estimated using the assumption that a smoker smokes 20 cigarettes per day. The mean annual effective doses in µSv/y from 210Po, 210Pb, 40K, 232Th and 232U and 226Ra were 295, 74.1, 5.80, 889.7, 192.6 and 90.1, respectively. The mean annual effective dose is lower than the reference level 1000 to 20000 µSv/y for existing situation in ICRP Publication 103. The average value of ELCR is 1.03 ×10-3, 0.26 ×10-3,0.02 ×10-3,3.11 ×10-3,0.67 ×10-3 and 0.32 ×10-3 for 210Po, 210Pb, 40K, 232Th and 232U and 226Ra, respectively. The ELCR values obtained in this study are well below the world average value of 1.45 ×10-3. The mean value of LCC in per million is 5.3, 1.3, 0.1, 16, 3.5 and 1.6 for 210Po, 210Pb, 40K, 232Th and 232U and 226Ra, respectively. The values of LCC obtained in this study are all below the limit range of 170-230 per million persons. The result shows 232Th contribute much larger for annual effective dose, annual equivalent dose, ELCR and LCC for smoking tobacco cigarette brands compared to other radionuclides. More studies in radioactivity in tobacco cigarette brands from different countries are required to have conclusive mean annual effective dose, annual equivalent dose, ELCR and LCC for each natural radionuclide.

Heavy metals in popularly sold branded cigarettes in Bangladesh and associated health hazards from inhalation exposure.

Tobacco products are widely recognized as a major contributor to death. Cigarette smoke contains several toxic chemicals including heavy metals particulate causing high health risks. However, limited information has been available on the health risks associated with the heavy metals in cigarettes commonly sold in the Bangladeshi market. This study evaluated the concentrations and potential health risks posed by ten concerned heavy metals in ten widely consumed cigarette brands in Bangladesh using an atomic absorption spectrometer. The concentration (mg/kg) ranges of heavy metals Pb, Cd, Cr, As, Co, Ni, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn vary between 0.46-1.05, 0.55-1.03, 0.80-1.2, 0.22-0.40, 0.46-0.78, 2.59-3.03, 436.8-762.7, 115.8-184.4, 146.6-217.7, and 34.0-42.7, respectively. We assume that the heavy metals content among cigarette brands is varied due to the differences in the source of tobacco they use for cigarette preparation. The carcinogenic risks posed by heavy metals follow the order of Cr > Co > Cd > As > Ni > Pb, while the non-carcinogenic risks for Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn were greater than unity (HQ > 1), except for Fe. The existence of toxic heavy metals in cigarette tobacco may thus introduce noticeable non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health impacts accompanying inhalation exposure. This study provides the first comprehensive report so far on heavy metal concentration and associated health risks in branded cigarettes commonly sold in Bangladesh. Hence, this data and the information provided can serve as a baseline as well as a reference for future research and have potential implications for policy and legislation in Bangladesh.

Consumption of JUUL vs. Other E-Cigarette Brands among U.S. E-Cigarette Users: Evidence from Wave 5 of the PATH Study.

This study examines the use of JUUL vs. other e-cigarette brands among U.S. youth (12-17 years), young adult (18-24 years), and adult (25 years and above) e-cigarette users. Data were from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study Wave 5 survey (2019). The study population was past 30-day e-cigarette users who knew the brand of e-cigarettes they usually/last used (N = 2569). JUUL use was reported by 65.2% of youth, 60.7% of young adult, and 25.6% of adult e-cigarette users in our study sample. The share of JUUL consumed in the past 30 days, measured by the total number of puffs, was 15.4% by youth, 55.5% by young adults, and 29.1% by adults. By contrast, the share of other e-cigarettes consumed was 4.2% by youth, 28.9% by young adults, and 66.9% by adults. Youth JUUL users were more likely to use e-cigarettes within 30 min after waking (aOR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.12-4.75) than youth users of other brands of e-cigarettes. Additionally, youth e-cigarette users who currently smoked cigarettes were less likely to use JUUL (aOR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.30-0.99). This study concludes that JUUL consumption was disproportionally higher among youth and young adults in the U.S. in 2019.

Trends in Overall and Menthol Market Shares of Leading Cigarette Brands in the USA: 2014-2019.

Many factors can shift cigarette brand preference, and surveillance is an important tactic to inform regulatory strategy. The objective of this study was to identify shifts in top brands' overall and menthol market share from 2014 to 2019. We used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health public use datasets, which are a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of people aged 12+ in the USA. In our analysis of top brands, we accounted for consumption patterns and computed the percent change in market share for each brand. We observed that overall market share declined for nearly all brands, though top moderately priced brands gained share. Half of the top brands with menthol styles grew in menthol market share. We observed three primary shifts in the cigarette market: brands that gained the most menthol market share were brands with both menthol and non-menthol in their product lineups; menthol contributed substantially to discount brands' market share increases; the two premium brands that employed "natural" descriptors experienced increased market share. Research should continue to focus on trends that influence cigarette market share, as the cigarette market in the USA is likely to look very different in five years than it does today.

Development of a Low-Cost Portable Electronic Nose for Cigarette Brands Identification.

In China, the government and the cigarette industry yearly lose millions in sales and tax revenue because of imitation cigarettes. Usually, visual observation is not enough to identify counterfeiting. An auxiliary analytical method is needed for cigarette brands identification. To this end, we developed a portable, low-cost electronic nose (e-nose) system for brand recognition of cigarettes. A gas sampling device was designed to reduce the influence caused by humidity fluctuation and the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the environment. To ensure the uniformity of airflow distribution, the structure of the sensing chamber was optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The e-nose system is compact, portable, and lightweight with only 15 cm in side length and the cost of the whole device is less than $100. Results from the machine learning algorithm showed that there were significant differences between 5 kinds of cigarettes we tested. Random Forest (RF) has the best performance with accuracy of 91.67% and K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) has the accuracy of 86.98%, which indicated that the e-nose was able to discriminate samples. We believe this portable, cheap, reliable e-nose system could be used as an auxiliary screen technique for counterfeit cigarettes.

Toxic heavy metal (Pb and Cd) content in tobacco cigarette brands in Selangor state, Peninsular Malaysia.

Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are ubiquitous metals widely distributed in the environment, resulting in toxic health effects. This project aims to evaluate Pb and Cd as toxic elements in 15 different tobacco cigarette brands produced and/or sold in Selangor state, Peninsular Malaysia. The concentrations of Pb and Cd in all tobacco brands tested in this study were determined using the air-acetylene flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). On average, the concentrations of Pb and Cd in different tobacco brand samples ranged from 3.05 and 0.80 µg/g dw, respectively. The results indicate that assessment mean values of Pb inhaled from smoking one packet of 20 cigarettes were in the range of 1.55-3.51 µg. Furthermore, the concentration of Cd inhaled per packet of cigarettes (20 sticks) is estimated to be 0.04-0.36 µg. However, there was a significant difference in the concentrations of Pb and Cd between the different brands of tobacco cigarettes, among cigarette prices (cheap versus expensive) of tobacco brands. In conclusion, cigarette smokers in Selangor, Malaysia, are heavily exposed to Pb and Cd, and such exposure could adversely affect their health in the long term. The impact of toxic heavy metals on smokers in this state would be an area for future research.

Whose Post Is It? Predicting E-cigarette Brand from Social Media Posts.

OBJECTIVES: E-cigarette advertisers know that 76% of youth use social media, yet little is known about the nature of e-cigarette advertising on social media most favored by youth. We utilized text-mining to characterize e-cigarette advertising and marketing messages from image-focused social media brand sites, and to construct and test an algorithm for predicting brand from brand-generated social media posts. METHODS: Data comprised 5022 unique posts accompanied by an image from Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest e-cigarette brand pages for Blu, Logic, Metro, and NJOY from February 2012 to April 2015. Text-tokenization was used to quantify text for use as predictors in analyses. RESULTS: Blu had the largest social media presence (65%), followed by Logic (16%), NJOY (12%) and Metro (7%). Blu's average post length was significantly shorter than all other brands. Words most commonly used in posts differed by brand. Regression analyses successfully differentiated Blu and NJOY brands from other brands. CONCLUSIONS: Analyses revealed e-cigarette brands used different types of messages to appeal to social media users. Whereas words used by Blu and NJOY sold a "lifestyle," words used by Logic and Metro relied on device and product identification.

Toxic metals in cigarettes and human health risk assessment associated with inhalation exposure.

This study evaluated the concentrations of cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in 10 branded cigarettes commonly consumed in Nigeria. Chemical sequential extraction method and pseudo-total metal digestion procedure were used for extraction of metals from filler tobacco and filter samples. Samples were analyzed using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The filler tobacco of cigarettes had Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn concentrations in the ranges of 5.90-7.94, 18.26-34.94, 192.61-3494.05, 44.67-297.69, 17.21-74.78, and 47.02-167.31 µg/cigarette, respectively. The minimum and maximum concentrations in the filter samples were 8.67-12.34 µg/g of Cd, 1.77-36.48 µg/g of Cu, 1.83-15.27 µg/g of Fe, 3.82-7.44 µg/g of Mn, 4.09-13.78 µg/g of Pb, and 30.07-46.70 µg/g of Zn. The results of this study showed that the concentrations of heavy metals in the filler tobacco samples were consistently higher than those obtained for the cigarette filters except for Cd. Toxic metals were largely found in the most labile chemical fractions. Moderate to very high risks are found associated with potential exposure to Cd and Pb. The carcinogenic risks posed by Cd and Pb ranged between 1.87E-02 and 2.52E-02, 1.05E-03 and 4.76E-03, respectively, while the non-carcinogenic risk estimates for Cd and Pb were greater than 1.0 (HI > 1). Toxic metals in cigarette may have significant carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health effects associated with inhalation exposure. Continuous monitoring and regulations of the ingredients of imported and locally produced tobacco products are advocated.

Exploring how the tobacco industry presents and promotes itself in social media.

BACKGROUND: The commercial potential of social media is utilized by tobacco manufacturers and vendors for tobacco promotion online. However, the prevalence and promotional strategies of pro-tobacco content in social media are still not widely understood. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to reveal what is presented by the tobacco industry, and how it promotes itself, on social media sites. METHODS: The top 70 popular cigarette brands are divided into two groups according to their retail prices: group H (brands with high retail prices) and group L (brands with low retail prices). Three comprehensive searches were conducted on Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube respectively using the top 70 popular cigarette brands as keywords. We identified tobacco-related content including history and culture, product features, health warnings, home page of cigarette brands, and Web-based tobacco shops. Furthermore, we examined the promotional strategies utilized in social media. RESULTS: According to the data collected from March 3, 2014 to March 10, 2014, 43 of the 70 representative cigarette brands had created 238 Facebook fan pages, 46 cigarette brands were identified in Wikipedia, and there were over 120,000 pro-tobacco videos on YouTube, associated with 61 cigarette brands. The main content presented on the three social media websites differs significantly. Wikipedia focuses on history and culture (67%, 32/48; P<.001). Facebook mainly covers history and culture (37%, 16/43; P<.001) and major products (35%, 15/43), while YouTube focuses on the features of major tobacco products (79%, 48/61; P=.04) and information about Web-based shops (49%, 30/61; P=.004). Concerning the content presented by groups H and L, there is no significant difference between the two groups. With regard to the promotional strategies used, sales promotions exist extensively in social media. Sales promotion is more prevalent on YouTube than on the other two sites (64%, 39/61 vs 35%, 15/43; P=.004). Generally, the sale promotions of higher-cost brands in social media are more prevalent than those of lower-cost brands (55%, 16/29 vs 7%, 1/14; P<.001 for Facebook; 78%, 28/36 vs 44%, 11/25; P=.005 for YouTube). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of cigarette brands in social media allows more pro-tobacco information to be accessed by online users. This dilemma indicates that corresponding regulations should be established to prevent tobacco promotion in social media.