New from NPR! 迷你雪茄像糖果，主攻年輕市場專家憂
迷你雪茄cigarillos在美國銷售有逐年成長趨勢。業者為了促銷無所不用其極，最明顯的就是將這些小雪茄以單支方式包裝，並添加了各種水果風味任消費者選擇。雪茄單支包裝好處很多，一來是價格變得低廉，所以降低了消費門檻(等你抽上癮之後，多少錢你都會買啦)，再來是將包裝變得精緻，讓抽雪茄成為一種時尚的表徵 a fashion statement。很明顯的，打的族群是年輕人，尤其是年輕女性。
這篇報導中提到，迷你雪茄看起來像是彩色蠟筆，上圖這些五顏六色的雪茄真的容易讓人誤認為是蠟筆。這樣放幾支在包包裡，家長也不會起疑心。
包裝精美與價格親民，這兩個要素讓迷你雪茄在美國大受歡迎。研究顯示，越早開始吸菸，日後戒菸的成功率就越低。現在許多專家憂心，美國吸菸人口年輕化，目前無法可管。所以報導引述專家的話，希望FDA(美國食品藥物管理局)能儘快介入監督，嚴格禁止這些雪茄添加水果或是糖果風味來吸引青少年購買，相關廣告也應該禁止。
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From NPR
Sweet Cigarillos And Cigars
Lure Youths To Tobacco, Critics Say
RENEE
MONTAGNE, HOST:
And
among today's teens and young adults, there is a worrisome, unhealthy trend.
Sales of little cigars are on Cigarillos. Their sales more than doubled, particularly among teenagers and
20-somethings. One reason? They're flavored有調味的
- sort of like candy.
Jennifer Cantrell directs research at the anti-tobacco反菸 Legacy Foundation.
JENNIFER
CANTRELL: We're seeing chocolate, cherry,
wild cherry, strawberry, grape - pretty much every flavor you can think of that you might see in a gum or a candy
product, we're' seeing in little cigars小雪茄
and cigarillos雪茄菸.
NEIGHMOND:
To examine how heavily companies market to young people, Cantrell sent field
researchers out to about 750 small grocery
and convenience stores in Washington, D.C. She found stores in areas dominated
by young people had far more ads for little cigars. They were outside the store, and they were clearly targeted to將目標設定給
a
youthful eye年輕的目光.
CANTRELL:
They're almost indistinguishable難以分辨的 from candy packaging糖果包裝. Some ads that we've seen on the
outside of stores, it almost looks like a big box of colorful crayons蠟筆.
NEIGHMOND:
And the price is right, too. Unlike
cigarettes, which cost about $6.50 a pack
and can't be sold individually, little cigars are wrapped in packages of one,
two or three and average about 99 cents per
cigar. The Altria Co., which makes one of the most popular cigarillos, says
they market to adult tobacco smokers, not
to children. Even so, Mayo Clinic researcher and public health advocate
Mignonne Guy says little cigars are easier for kids to access容易讓小孩子取得(購買) than cigarettes, but no less harmful裡面的尼古丁一點也不少(害處一樣多).
MIGNONNE
GUY: The average cigarette has approx 8 milligrams毫克(千分之一克) of nicotine尼古丁 in it. The
average cigar can range anywhere from 100 to
200 milligrams of nicotine.
NEIGHMOND:
That's a lot more nicotine than in a cigarette. And the problem is today's
teens and young adults don't just puff吹噴, like in the old days. They inhale吸入.
GUY:
They're treating it like a cigarette, and
they're using them like cigarettes. They will say, "I'll use them when I'm
really stressed out壓力大," after a test, or after a
long day's worth of work.
NEIGHMOND:
Guy says kids as young as middle-schoolers 中學生are trying little cigars. And evidence shows the earlier in life people start using tobacco products菸草產品, the harder it is to quit.
GUY:
We've done a great job in communicating to the general public大眾
about the dangers of cigarettes, but we
have not done a great job of communicating the
harm - and the risk and the danger - of
little cigars and cigarillos.
NEIGHMOND:
About four years ago, the FDA expanded延伸/擴張 oversight 監督of cigarettes, restricting
advertising and banning禁止 most flavors. The agency is now considering whether to take a
similar strict stance嚴格的姿態 when it comes to regulating
little cigars and cigarillos.
Patti
Neighmond, NPR News.
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