Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, 2001 N Soto St., Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, 3620 South McClintock Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Feb 11;15(2):313. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15020313.
After proposing the "Deeming Rule" in 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating the manufacturing, marketing, and sales of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) products as tobacco products in 2016. The current study conducted vape shop store observations and surveyed Los Angeles-area shop employees (assessing their beliefs, awareness, and perceptions of e-cigarettes and related FDA regulations) at two time points one year apart to better understand what vape shop retailers would do given FDA's soon-to-be-enacted Deeming Rule. The study also compared retailer beliefs/awareness/actions and store characteristics immediately after the Deeming Rule proposal versus a year after the Rule had been proposed, right before its enactment. Two data collection waves occurred before the Deeming Rule enactment, with Year 1 surveying 77 shops (2014) and Year 2 surveying 61 shops (2015-2016). Between the data collection points, 16 shops had closed. Among the shops that were open at both time points, the majority (95% in Year 1; 74% in Year 2) were aware of some FDA regulations or other policies applying to vape shops. However, overall awareness of FDA regulations and state/local policies governing e-cigarettes significantly decreased from Year 1 to Year 2. At both time points, all shops offered customers free puffs of nicotine-containing e-liquids (prohibited by the then upcoming Deeming Rule). Perceptions of e-cigarette safety also significantly decreased between the years. Exploring vape shop retailer perceptions and store policies (i.e., free puffs/samples displays, perceptions of e-cigarette safety, etc.) over time will help the FDA assess the needs of the vape shop community and develop more effective retailer education campaigns and materials targeted to increase compliance with the newly enacted regulations.
2014 年提出“视同规则”后，美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）于 2016 年开始将电子烟（e-cigarette）产品的制造、营销和销售作为烟草产品进行监管。本研究在两年时间内进行了蒸汽烟商店观察，并对洛杉矶地区商店员工进行了调查（评估他们对电子烟和相关 FDA 法规的看法、意识和看法），以更好地了解 FDA 即将颁布的“视同规则”下蒸汽烟零售商将采取的措施。该研究还比较了规则提案前后一年零售商的信念/意识/行动以及商店特征，即在规则颁布之前。在“视同规则”颁布之前进行了两次数据收集，第 1 年调查了 77 家商店（2014 年），第 2 年调查了 61 家商店（2015-2016 年）。在数据收集点之间，有 16 家商店关闭。在两个时间点都营业的商店中，大多数（第 1 年为 95%；第 2 年为 74%）了解一些适用于蒸汽烟商店的 FDA 法规或其他政策。然而，从第 1 年到第 2 年，对 FDA 法规和州/地方电子烟监管政策的总体认识显著下降。在这两个时间点，所有商店都为客户提供含尼古丁的电子烟液免费试用（即将出台的“视同规则”禁止这种做法）。对电子烟安全性的看法也在这两年间显著下降。随着时间的推移，探索蒸汽烟零售商的看法和商店政策（即免费试用/样品展示、对电子烟安全性的看法等）将有助于 FDA 评估蒸汽烟商店社区的需求，并制定更有效的零售商教育活动和材料，以提高对新颁布法规的遵守程度。
