Limitations of tobacco time may not work, new research turns out

Based on survey data, young adults say that Tabak 21 (T21) laws falls that they smoke less. Biomarkers paint a smoker image. Despite recent reports on the success of tobacco ban, new research shows that 18 to 20-year-olds find ways to get cigarettes and vapen. Traces of nicotine and tobacco in their bodies prove it.

First research research developed by Wake Forest University Economist Erik Nesson and published In the Peer-Reviewed Journal of Health Economics Show that, since the adoption of the T21 laws between 2016 and 2019, young adults aged 18-20 years earlier report that they were not smoking -although a study by biomarkers for their tobacco and nicotine exposure tells a different story.

The study is on the heels of the latest American surgeon -general report on tobacco use, which says that more than 36 million American adults and 760,000 secondary and secondary students use a kind of tobacco product.

A National T21 law has increased the minimum age for buying tobacco products in response to a huge increase in the use of e-cigarettes or vapen, by young people. The law followed a series of state and local T21 prohibitions, with Hawaii implementing the first such law in 2016.

To determine the effectiveness of such laws, Nesson and a team including Chad Cotti from Michigan State University and Phillip Decicca from Ball State University used data from the population assessment of tobacco use and health (Path), a continuous study that has collected information from information from Thousands of participants since 2013.

What makes this new study unique?

Pad data includes self -reported answers to survey questions in addition to the results of medical tests that biomarkers detect for exposure to tobacco and nicotine.

The study by Nesson, “The effects of Tabak 21 laws on smoking and vapen: evidence from panel data and biomarkers”, is the first to analyze both the Path Survey data and the results of the biomarker, which makes the difference.

“When you measure tobacco use with only self-reported survey data, you will find that the T21 policy is effective in reducing the use of tobacco, especially smoking cigarettes,” Nesson said. “But when you measure the recent exposure of the same young adults to tobacco by biomarkers in their urine, you see no changes in recent exposure. Policy makers must be aware of the unintended consequences of the policy they have set up. Sometimes they can be positive , but sometimes they can be negative “

And that means that minor smokers may hide the fact that they smoke because it is now illegal.

It is an important distinction for policy makers, legislators and care providers aimed at preventing young people from smoking in an attempt to curb the number of adults on nicotine.

Why the findings matter

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, performed every year by the Federal Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, daily smokers tried their first cigarette around the age of 15 and formed a daily habit around the age of 18.

For example, Nesson is working on a paper that shows that is prohibited on flooded vape cartridges probably reduced vapen among young people, as intended. However, an unintended consequence is that many of the young people who von just hit the smoking of traditional cigarettes before the prohibition was in force.

“If you make it harder to evaporate, they will fall back on what is available,” he explained.

In the meantime, the researchers discover in another study that forbidden on poor tobacco products have very little or no effect on LGBTQ youth – they remain dissatisfied with the same frequency, despite limitations.

Without further research, researchers suggest, all estimates of the effects of T21 prohibitions can be overestimated on the smoking habits of young adults aged 18-20 years.