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It has been suggested that the common practice of adding ingredients to cigarette tobacco might affect patterns of smoking initiation, consumption or cessation. These suggestions have themselves prompted claims that regulation of such ingredients may contribute to reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and dependence among new and continuing smokers. In order to investigate the evidential basis for such claims, we performed a cross-sectional statistical analysis of smoking quit ratios across a sample of 80 countries, comparing those with high market shares of traditional blended cigarettes and those with high market shares of Virginia-style cigarettes, utilizing the fact that traditional blended cigarettes contain added ingredients whereas Virginia-style cigarettes contain no or very few added ingredients. Our results support the findings of our previous study performed in 2012 (across a sample of 46 countries), showing no evidence that the hypothesised effects exist with regard to quit ratios, and find that the use of ingredients can account for virtually none of the crosscountry variation in quit behaviour. This conclusion is robust to alternative specifications of variables, and to controlling for a variety of socio-economic indicators in a multivariate regression setting. We find socio-economic variables - notably income, education and internet access - exert a significant effect on the quit ratio, inducing higher cessation rates as standards in medical care and information improve as societies develop. We also find various tobacco control measures induce high quit ratios across countries. Both of these findings are in line with existing international evidence on smoking patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The US government requires the public display of information about toxic chemicals in cigarettes and smoke by brand in a way that is understandable and not misleading. We sought to identify risk communication formats that meet these goals. Methods: We conducted 3 online experiments with US adult convenience samples (total N = 1866). Participants viewed a webpage displaying information about chemicals in the smoke of a cigarette brand. Experiment 1 varied the chemicals listed and format for their health effects. Experiments 2 and 3 varied the format of chemical quantities and presence/absence of a visual risk indicator. Outcomes were understandable (increasing knowledge) and not misleading (not reinforcing misperceptions). Results: Information about chemicals and health effects increased knowledge of these topics by ~30% (p < .001) compared to no information. Quantity format and use of a risk indicator generally did not affect knowledge. The proportion of participants misled ranged from 0% to 92%, depending on measure. Findings indicated 52% would use a website to search for safer cigarettes. Risk communication formats did little to reduce being misled. Conclusions: Some risk communication formats successfully increased knowledge of chemicals and health effects. However, the formats did little to reduce the proportion of people misled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal way to display constituent levels (e.g. tar) on tobacco packaging has not received adequate attention but has important policy implications. Adult smokers and non-smokers (n = 836) were surveyed in France using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing to assess perceptions of constituent levels displayed numerically (brand-specific tar and nicotine numbers from smoking machines and the current format in European Union), descriptively (a short sentence describing chemicals and their health effects but without any brand-specific numbers) or as a pack insert (a card placed on the inside of the pack describing the presence of chemicals and their health effects in more detail, as well as information on cessation). We also assessed perceptions of identically packaged cigarettes differing only on nicotine levels. Displaying information regarding ingredients either descriptively or on pack inserts was perceived as more comprehensible and informative than displaying them numerically. Numeric yields were associated with false beliefs: almost half the sample perceived packs with lower nicotine levels (0.8 mg vs. 0.9 mg) to be safer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]