Preventing youth smoking initiation is a priority for tobacco control programs, because most adult tobacco smokers become addicted during adolescence. Interventions that restrict the affordability, accessibility, and marketing of cigarettes have been effective in reducing youth cigarette smoking. However, increasing numbers of youth are smoking tobacco using hookahs. Predictors of smoking tobacco with hookahs are the same as those for smoking cigarettes. Established interventions that curb youth cigarette smoking should therefore be effective in reducing hookah use. Potential policy interventions include equalizing tobacco tax rates for all tobacco types, requiring warning labels on hookah tobacco and accurate labeling of product contents, extending the cigarette flavoring ban to hookah tobacco, enacting smoke-free air laws and removing exemptions for hookah lounges, and expanding shipping restrictions on tobacco products.

BackgroundThe Federal excise tax was increased for tobacco products on April 1, 2009. While excise tax rates prior to the increase were the same for roll-your-own (RYO) and pipe tobacco, the tax on pipe tobacco was $21.95 per pound less than the tax on RYO tobacco after the increase. Subsequently, tobacco manufacturers began labeling loose tobacco as pipe tobacco and marketing these products to RYO consumers at a lower price. Retailers refer to these products as “dual purpose" or “dual use" pipe tobacco.MethodsData on tobacco tax collections comes from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Joinpoint software was used to identify changes in sales trends. Estimates were generated for the amount of pipe tobacco sold for RYO use and for Federal and state tax revenue lost through August 2011.ResultsApproximately 45 million pounds of pipe tobacco has been sold for RYO use from April 2009 to August 2011, lowering state and Federal revenue by over $1.3 billion.ConclusionsMarketing pipe tobacco as “dual purpose" and selling it for RYO use provides an opportunity to avoid paying higher cigarette prices. This blunts the public health impact excise tax increases would otherwise have on reducing tobacco use through higher prices. Selling pipe tobacco for RYO use decreases state and Federal revenue and also avoids regulations on flavored tobacco, banned descriptors, prohibitions on shipping, and reporting requirements.

Objective: To determine risk factors for consumption of soda and other sugarsweetened beverages (SSB) among 2-year-old children. Design: The analysis was performed using three linked data sets: the [2004][2005] Oregon Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring Survey (PRAMS); its longitudinal follow-up, 2006-2007 and 2004-2005 Oregon birth certificates. Setting: PRAMS is a surveillance programme supported by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and implemented by participating state health departments. Using mixed methods, PRAMS surveys women 2-6 months after a live birth. Oregon PRAMS-2 re-interviews respondents shortly after the index child's second birthday. Oregon PRAMS oversamples minority women. Subjects: Using monthly cohorts, we randomly selected 5851 women from the 2004-2005 birth certificates. In total 1911 women completed both PRAMS and PRAMS-2. The weighted response rate of PRAMS-2 was 43?5 %. Results: Almost half of mothers (49?9 %) reported that their child drank SSB on at least 1 d/week. Mothers whose children drank SSB at least once weekly were more likely to have low income (adjusted OR 5 2?83, 95 % CI 2?09, 3?83) and to eat out on $2 d/week (OR 5 2?11 %, 95 % CI 1?66, 2?70). Hispanic and nonHispanic black women were most likely to report that their child drank SSB at least once weekly. Conclusions: Half of mothers reported that their 2-year-old children drank SSB at least once weekly. Public health interventions and policies should address childhood SSB consumption including educating health-care providers and parents.

Despite warnings that drinking during pregnancy is unsafe, many women are still at risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP). This article describes the outcomes of a web-based, self-guided change intervention designed to lower the risk for AEPs in a community. A sample of 458 women, between the ages of 18 and 44 years and at risk for an AEP (i.e., any drinking in the past 30 days and not using reliable contraception), participated in the study. A total of 58% of the women enrolled in the self-guided change intervention were no longer at risk for an AEP at the 4-month follow-up. Sublevel analysis revealed that mail and online versions of the intervention were equally successful at reducing risk for an AEP. This study represents a successful implementation of a web-based, self-guided change intervention to reduce risk for an AEP, an intervention with community-wide reach due to the Internet platform.

Accurately measuring exposure is critical to all intervention studies. The present review examines the extent to which best practices in exposure assessment are adhered to in community-based prevention and education studies. A systematic literature review was conducted examining community-based studies testing communication interventions, published in 2003-2007. Of 663 studies identified, 54 met all inclusion criteria and were reviewed for type of exposure assessment conducted (if any), use of exposure data in study analyses, and discussion of biases related to exposure assessment. Although a majority of studies (n = 38; 70%) assessed exposure, most of these used only a simple dichotomous measure (n = 31; 82%), less than half used exposure data to adjust intervention effects (n = 16; 42%), and only six (16%) addressed selective exposure as a possible source of bias. There is substantial room for improvement in measurement and analysis of exposure to communication in community-based disease prevention studies.