Tobacco industry targeting of health-conscious youth with ‘lighter’ cigarettes: the case of Singapore

BackgroundDespite Singapore’s strict tobacco control policies, smoking rates have not decreased since 2004. We examined the primary targets, motivations and strategies behind targeted marketing activities in Singapore from the tobacco industry’s perspective to understand how tobacco companies continue to target people in their marketing.MethodsSnowball search in the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library for documents covering the industry’s targeted marketing activities in Singapore. Information from the documents was subsequently triangulated with market data obtained from the Euromonitor Passport database, analysed for trends by tar segment and data from cigarette packs purchased from Singapore retailers, analysed in terms of product positioning.ResultsIn the 1970s and 1980s, as young people in Singapore became more health-conscious, tobacco companies positioned ‘light’ cigarettes for growth in the 1990s. Many of these ‘lights’ contained similar tar and nicotine levels as regular brands; they were only light in their branding. In the 1990’s, ‘lights’ became more popular in Singapore and this demand was largely youth driven. Into the 2010s, while the low tar (<6 mg) segment comprised only a small portion of Singapore’s cigarette market, most cigarette variants were marketed as ‘lighter’ or as having harm reductive benefits to appeal to more health-conscious people.ConclusionsThe differentiation of ‘lighter’ cigarettes remains an important marketing tool for tobacco companies amidst Singapore’s strict regulations. Legislation to remove all remaining avenues for tobacco companies to make harm reduction claims on their products, explicit or implicit, coupled with improving health literacy and exposing industry deception, could help to further bring down smoking prevalence in Singapore.

Attitude of medical students to alcohol and nicotine

Aim. To determine the attitude of medical students to alcohol and nicotine. Methods. An anonymous survey of 118 5th year students (43 male students, 75 female students; mean age 22.6±0.9 years) of Irkutsk State Medical University was conducted. A self-composed questionnaire allowing to evaluate the students’ attitude to alcohol and nicotine was used. No cases of turndown were observed. Results. 17 (39.5%) out of 43 male students and 31 (41.3%) out of 75 female students were active smokers. 29.4% male students and 58.1% female students smoked up to 5 cigarettes per day, 58.8 and 38.7% - 5 to 10 cigarettes per day, 11.8 and 3.2% - over 10 cigarettes per day, accordingly. The majority of students (88.2% amle and 70.9% female students) smoked «light» cigarettes, 11.8 and 29.1% - «superlight». 25 (58.1%) male students and 47 (62.7%) female students reported that they were alcohol takers. Most of male students (84%) were drinking beer, most of female students (74.5%) - wine. 96% male and 36.2% female students took strong spirits. 17 (39.6%) male and 22 (29.3%) reported episodes of partial amnesia after alcohol consumption. 5 (20%) out of 25 male and 16 (34%) out of 47 female students reported they would like to reduce their alcohol consumption. Conclusion. The study showed that alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking is a rather common in the respondents; this problem requires further study.