The C'RILLOS Project: Impact of Tobacco Regulatory Policy on Dynamic Use of Exclusive, Dual or Poly Cigar and Other Tobacco Product Use among Young Adults

Project Summary African-Americans/Blacks (AA/B) and Hispanics/Latinos (H/L) are vastly underrepresented in tobacco regulatory sciences research. Yet as their smoking persists, these groups bear the most significant burden of tobacco-related health diseases, including cancer. These disparities are due, in part, to the use of flavored tobacco products, like little filtered cigars and cigarillos (LCCs), and the tobacco industry’s aggressive promotion of LCCs to AA/B and H/L communities. An intended consequence of the anticipated flavor ban is the smoking reduction of flavored LCCs. However, the tobacco industry’s repackaging of their flavored tobacco products and their rhetoric about over-policing and discrimination against AA/B smokers threatens to disrupt the health equity impacts of the impending flavor ban. Critical gaps in the scientific evidence exist about the effects of exposure and receptivity to cigar product repackaging and socio-political rhetoric on AA/B and H/L young adults’ (YA) smoking behavior. Our proposed project seeks to address gaps and provide evidence to the FDA’s Impact, Marketing, and Behavioral domains by answering: “Do cigar product repackaging and rhetoric about over-policing and illicit cigar trade influence AA/B and H/L YA’s flavor ban perceptions and predict future LCC smoking behaviors among non-users and current users?