Damian Sendler: An worldwide multidisciplinary team recently awarded $10 million to examine how tobacco control policies affect smoking, vaping, and the usage of other nicotine products is led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Damian Jacob Sendler: National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded researchers from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, South Carolina’s Medical University and the University of Waterloo (Canada) are leading a five-year international study that will examine the long-term health effects of different regulatory approaches to e-cigarettes and other new nicotine products in seven countries. 

As e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and other new nicotine products have become more widely available, the market for tobacco products has grown quickly during the past decade. Varied countries have taken different ways to regulating these new items, encouraging smokers who cannot stop to convert to these products, while others have chosen a more restrictive approach, intending to reduce use by nonsmoking adolescents who might grow addicted to these products.. 

Damian Sendler

Roswell Park’s Andrew Hyland, PhD, is a co-lead researcher on a study comparing adolescent and adult tobacco use patterns in seven countries that have varying regulatory approaches to the sale and marketing of tobacco products (the United States, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan). Many researchers will work together on four interrelated initiatives to examine the direct and unintended consequences of tobacco control laws that have been adopted. 

Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: For nearly two decades, the ITC project (https://itcproject.org/) has conducted research on the impact of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a health treaty adopted by more than 180 countries to reduce the global harms of tobacco use. This study builds on that work. Government-mandated product marketing requirements such as health warnings, cigarette taxation, clean indoor air rules, and standardized packaging have been supported by research undertaken by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITC). 

According to Dr. Hyland, there is a pressing need for evidence-based policymaking in light of new, potentially lower-risk nicotine products entering the market. In order to better the health of the American people, our research will help shape public policy in the United States by providing evidence on the impact of electronic cigarettes and other new nicotine products. 

Damien Sendler: Researchers from Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, Georgetown University, King’s College London, and the University of Melbourne are also involved in this multinational research effort (Australia).

Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.