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 The results of the study, released Thursday, showed 40 percent of
tobacco consumers use multiple products, such as cigarillos, hookah
and cigars. Half of all combinations involved e-cigarettes.
The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study of
46,000 people, begun in 2011, is designed to answer questions about
the tobacco use and behavior and help shape industry regulation.
Public health officials have long questioned whether smokers
attracted to e-cigarettes will use them to quit smoking or simply as
an alternative for use in places where smoking is not allowed.
Data released on Thursday did not give definitive insight about why
people are using different forms of tobacco. Andrew Hyland,
scientific principal investigator on the study and chair of the
department of health behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, said
they may be transitioning away from cigarettes, or they may be
becoming more entrenched.
The study is expected to provide a wealth of information about
tobacco use, smoking behavior and attitudes and will give the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration data to reshape industry regulations.
"We were struck by the proportion of users that engaged in polyuse,"
Mitch Zeller, head of the Food and Drug Administration's tobacco
division, said in an interview, referring to the use of multiple
products.
Preliminary results were presented to an audience of scientists,
researchers and industry representatives at the annual meeting of
the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in Philadelphia.
The most common combination of products among youth and adults was
cigarettes and e-cigarettes, data showed.
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The results, to be gathered and disclosed over years, are expected
to provide for tobacco the type of information that the decades-long
Framingham Heart Study has provided about heart disease and its
impact on public health.
Although the information about multi-product use is a start, more
time will be needed to identify the reasons for such use, study
organizers said.
"Is it a step towards people quitting, or are the hooks of nicotine
just getting deeper," said Hyland.
The tobacco industry is rapidly changing with the popularity of
electronic nicotine devices.
"The evolution that has taken place in the marketplace makes your
head spin," Zeller said.
(Reporting by Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Ken Wills)
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