The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney, A Joint Venture with Cancer Council NSW, 1 King Street, Newtown, NSW, 2042, Australia.
Prevention Research Collaboration, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, John Hopkins Drive, Camperdown, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Health Promot Int. 2024 Oct 1;39(5). doi: 10.1093/heapro/daae126.
E-cigarette use (or vaping) is widespread in young people and is a rapidly growing public health problem. While the tobacco and vaping industry has promoted vaping as a smoking cessation aid for adults, the industry has strategically targeted young people through marketing and appealing designs to orientate a new generation of consumers to use their products. These strategies are not new and replicate what we have previously seen employed by the tobacco industry in past decades to maintain and grow their tobacco profits. We review the evidence on tobacco and vaping industry interference, highlighting the calculated and strategic use of interference tactics as a discourse to curb tobacco control efforts. We demonstrate how these tried and tested strategies are now being purposefully re-used in the context of vaping. As Australia is currently undergoing significant policy reforms for the access and retail of vaping products, we also provide a case study of the industry response played out in this contemporary landscape. Government and public health advocates are in a key position to be one step ahead in proactively tackling the vaping crisis. We recommend that continued monitoring of industry activities and strategies, achieving political transparency and tightening loopholes in current regulations are all needed to identify and eliminate the tobacco and vaping industry's influence on policymaking. Given their previous track record, we emphasize the need to counter industry interference tactics with urgency to prevent a new generation of nicotine dependence and to support and protect future action in tobacco control.
电子烟使用（或蒸气）在年轻人中很普遍，是一个迅速增长的公共卫生问题。虽然烟草和蒸气行业将蒸气作为成年人戒烟的辅助手段进行推广，但该行业通过营销和有吸引力的设计策略，将目标对准年轻一代，引导新一代消费者使用他们的产品。这些策略并不新鲜，复制了我们过去几十年来在烟草行业中看到的维持和增加烟草利润的策略。我们审查了烟草和蒸气行业干扰的证据，强调了干扰策略的精心策划和战略性使用，作为遏制烟草控制工作的一种手段。我们展示了这些久经考验的策略如何在蒸气的背景下被有意重新使用。由于澳大利亚目前正在对蒸气产品的获取和零售进行重大政策改革，我们还提供了在这一当代背景下行业反应的案例研究。政府和公共卫生倡导者处于积极主动应对蒸气危机的关键位置。我们建议继续监测行业活动和策略，实现政治透明度，并收紧现行法规中的漏洞，以识别和消除烟草和蒸气行业对决策制定的影响。鉴于他们过去的记录，我们强调需要紧急应对行业干扰策略，以防止新一代尼古丁依赖，并支持和保护未来的烟草控制行动。
