1. Smokers’ Awareness of Filter Ventilation, and How They Believe it Affects Them: Findings from the ITC Four Country Survey
- Author
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Geoffrey T. Fong, Ann McNeill, Dorothy K. Hatsukami, Richard J O'Connor, Bill King, Michael Cummings, Ron Borland, and Michael R. Le Grande
- Subjects
Research ethics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Institutional review board ,Tobacco industry ,Filter (software) ,law.invention ,Risk perception ,Expert witness ,law ,Family medicine ,Ventilation (architecture) ,medicine ,Smoking cessation ,Psychology - Abstract
Background: Filter ventilation creates impressions of ‘lightness’ and controls machine-tested yields of tar and nicotine. Virtually all factory made cigarettes now have filter ventilation in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Previous research, conducted before ‘light’ and ‘mild’ labelling was banned, found low awareness of filter ventilation. This study explores current levels of awareness and understandings. Methods: We used data from the 2018 wave of the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey with samples from USA, England, Canada and Australia. Analyses were conducted initially on a weighted sample of 11,844, and subsequently on 7,541 daily factory made cigarette (FMC) smokers. Findings: Only 38.5% of all respondents reported being aware of filter ventilation. Among daily FMC smokers, only 9.4% believed their cigarettes had filter ventilation. Respondents who believed their usual cigarettes had filter ventilation were more likely to believe their usual cigarettes were both less harmful (18.2% vs 8.8%, p
- Published
- 2020