Abstract
Background: Little is known about how policies and industry activities impact smokeless tobacco demand. We examined how tobacco control policies and retail promotion may affect smokeless tobacco sales. Methods: We used Nielsen market-level retail scanner data for smokeless tobacco sales in convenience stores in 30 US regions from 2005 to 2010. Tobacco policy variables, including excise taxes, state tobacco control program expenditures, and clean indoor air laws, were merged to Nielsen markets. We estimated regression models for per capita unit sales. Results: Higher cigarette tax was significantly associated with lower sales volume of smokeless tobacco. Sales of smokeless tobacco in markets with a weight-based SLT excise tax were higher than in markets with an ad valorem tax. A higher average product price was associated with decreased sales overall but results varied by package quantity and brand. Conclusions: This study observed that smokeless tobacco products were both complements and substitutes to cigarettes. Thus, smokeless tobacco may act as complements for some population segments and substitutes for others. A weight-based tax generally favors premium smokeless tobacco products.
Highlights
Smokeless tobacco (SLT) in the US has traditionally been made in two dominant forms: chewing tobacco and moist snuff
Chewing tobacco is available in loose leaves, plugs, or twists of tobacco, and is placed between the cheek and gum or teeth while moist snuff tobacco (MST) is a finely ground tobacco packaged in cans or pouches, which can be sold dry or moist, and is sometimes used in teabag-like pouches
Markets consisting exclusively of states that taxed MST based on weight increased to 7 markets in 2010 or 22.8% of the market population) from 2 in 2005
Summary
Smokeless tobacco (SLT) in the US has traditionally been made in two dominant forms: chewing tobacco and moist snuff. Swedish-style snus, which is technically a MST product, is a more recent entry in the US SLT market and characterized as having a lower level of tobacco-specific nitrosamines than US. These types of SLT as well as the different brands within each type vary widely in the amount of nicotine and nitrosamine [3,4,5]. We examined how tobacco control policies and retail promotion may affect smokeless tobacco sales. Methods: We used Nielsen market-level retail scanner data for smokeless tobacco sales in convenience stores in 30 US regions from 2005 to 2010. Tobacco policy variables, including excise taxes, state tobacco control program expenditures, and clean indoor air laws, were merged to Nielsen markets. Sales of smokeless tobacco in markets with a weight-based SLT excise tax were higher than in markets with an ad valorem tax
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