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The tobacco industry "comes up with tips and tricks" in an effort to attract young smokers, said the chairman of the Public Health Association of Australia after the analysis revealed that cigarettes with flavor change capsules were the fastest growing segment of the tobacco market.
Assistant Professor Terry Slevin described the modification of tobacco products to make them more appetizing as "an extraordinary assault on public health".
"Any changes to tobacco products that clearly aim to increase smoking rates and target young smokers should be resisted without scruple," he said.
"Australia has the lowest smoking rate in the world among young people and we are now in a situation where over 97% of children under 18 never smoke. The tobacco industry is clearly seeking to reverse this success and relies on tricks and stunts that should not be tolerated. "
An analysis published Monday in the Tobacco Control of the British Medical Journal revealed that the market for cigarettes with flavor-changing capsules in the filter had "grown exponentially since its introduction in 2007".
Capsules, fruit and mint aromas, are also gaining popularity for self-rolling cigarettes. Product market share increased between 2014 and 2017 in 52 of the 67 countries where they are sold and monitored by the Euromonitor tobacco analyst.
"Despite the success of this product innovation, capsule research is still rare," said the analysis conducted by Stirling University in the UK.
"Nevertheless, existing research on adult smokers in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia consistently show a preference for capsules in young adults and more than half of Australian smokers aged 12 to 17 who have last month have reported trying a capsule. The taste, the choice of flavors, the pleasure of clicking on the capsule, the elegance and the decrease of perceived damage seem to be the main reasons to use cigarette capsules. "
Slevin said that an urgent national strategy was needed to respond to market growth, in addition to anti-smoking laws in every state and territory.. A study published this month at New Zealand's University of Otago found that young non-smokers and former smokers found flavored capsules more appealing and were more likely to experiment with them than with other non-smokers. unflavoured cigarettes.
Kylie Lindorff, head of Victoria's resignation policy, urged the state government to take immediate action to ban the sale of tobacco products containing flavoring capsules. The products were designed to make smoking more fun for young people and non-smokers, and for the taste to be better, she said.
"Tobacco control organizations have been fighting for decades to reach the stage we are in – young Australians are less interested than previous generations in trying to smoke or start smoking," Lindorff said.
"But the tobacco industry is working hard to change that by targeting young people with" fun "and" cold "products such as flavored capsule cigarettes that, when the filter is squeezed, give off a flavor that makes tobacco smoke more palatable. "
Flavored cigarettes are now widely available in Australia, with almost all major brands, including at least one product with compressible beads in their range.
"The product line and popularity of flavored capsule cigarettes will continue to grow only if governments take serious steps to ban these products," Lindorff said.
To date, only Canada, Ethiopia, Senegal and Uganda have banned flavored tobacco products. They will be banned in Brazil by March 2020 and in much of Europe by May 2020.
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