Social Response to the FDA Authorization of Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Jungmi Jun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Tobacco Products ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

Objectives: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sales of heated tobacco products (HTPs) on April 30, 2019. In this paper, I provide a preliminary analysis of social media conversations regarding HTPs and the FDA authorization in the first 60 days. Methods: I examined 574 tweets regarding HTPs to assess tweet characteristics and semantic networks of HTPs. Results: Tweets were more likely to be neutral or anti-HTPs than pro-HTPs regardless of the author type (except for tobacco industry) or genre of the post. There was a small gap (6.4%) between the proportion of pro-HTPs and anti-HTPs among personal tweets. The proportion of pro-HTPs was larger in tweets posted by men (vs women and no sex specified) and from rural areas (vs urban). Nearly one-third of the sample mentioned cigarettes or e-cigarettes, even though the size of posts making claims on inferiority/superiority of HTPs was small. Conclusions: Social media conversations on risks of HTPs as well as surveillance on young consumer target marketing is occurring, and it will be important to assess the impact of tobacco companies' launch of HTP sales in the US to assess public perceptions on HTPs. Continuing surveillance of HTP marketing and risk perceptions will inform tobacco regulations.

scholarly journals Sustainable Tourism, Economic Growth and Employment—The Case of the Wine Routes of Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7164
Author(s):  
Guillermo Vázquez Vicente ◽  
Victor Martín Barroso ◽  
Francisco José Blanco Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Wine Tourism ◽  
Development Tool ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Tourism has become a priority in national and regional development policies and is considered a source of economic growth, particularly in rural areas. Nowadays, wine tourism is an important form of tourism and has become a local development tool for rural areas. Regional tourism development studies based on wine tourism have a long history in several countries such as the US and Australia, but are more recent in Europe. Although Spain is a leading country in the tourism industry, with an enormous wine-growing tradition, the literature examining the economic impact of wine tourism in Spanish economy is scarce. In an attempt to fill this gap, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of wine tourism on economic growth and employment in Spain. More specifically, by applying panel data techniques, we study the economic impact of tourism in nine Spanish wine routes in the period from 2008 to 2018. Our results suggest that tourism in these wine routes had a positive effect on economic growth. However, we do not find clear evidence of a positive effect on employment generation.

History and Current Trends in the Electronic Cigarette Retail Marketplace in the United States: 2010–2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 843-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cantrell ◽  
Jidong Huang ◽  
Marisa Greenberg ◽  
Jeffrey Willett ◽  
Elizabeth Hair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Retail Market ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Published Evidence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Industry Response ◽  
Market Trends ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Introduction The US market for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has grown rapidly in the last decade. There is limited published evidence examining changes in the ENDS marketplace prior to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) deeming rule in 2016. This study describes US ENDS retail market trends from 2010 to 2016. Methods National data were obtained from Nielsen retail scanners for five product types: (1) disposables, (2) rechargeables, (3) cartridge replacements, (4) e-liquid bottle refills, and (5) specialty vapor products. We examined dollar sales, volume, price, brand, and flavor. Results Adjusted national sales increased from $11.6 million in 2010 to $751.2 million in 2016. The annual rate of sales growth rapidly increased before slowing through 2015. The rate of growth spiked in 2016. Market share for menthol products and other assorted flavors increased from 20% in 2010 to 52.1% by 2016. NJOY’s early market dominance shifted as tobacco industry brands entered the market and eventually captured 87.8% of share by 2016. Rechargeables and accompanying products comprised an increased proportion of total volume sold over time while disposable volume declined. Specialty vapor products appeared at retail in 2015. Conclusions Findings show strong early growth in the ENDS retail market followed by considerable slowing over time, despite a slight uptick in 2016. Trends reflect shifts to flavored products, newer generation “open-system” devices, lower prices, and tobacco industry brands. This study provides a baseline against which to compare the impact of FDA’s 2016 deeming rule and future actions on the ENDS marketplace. Implications This study uses market scanner data from US retail outlets to describe trends in the ENDS retail market from 2010 to 2016, providing a baseline against which to compare the impact of FDA’s 2016 deeming rule and future actions on the ENDS marketplace. Understanding historical market trends is valuable in assessing how future regulatory efforts and advances in ENDS technology may impact industry response and consumer uptake and use.

scholarly journals Rapid Multi-Dimensional Impact Assessment of Floods

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4246 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pastor-Escuredo ◽  
Yolanda Torres ◽  
María Martínez-Torres ◽  
Pedro J. Zufiria
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Heterogeneous Data ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Mobile Phone Data ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
The Impact

Natural disasters affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide every year. The impact assessment of a disaster is key to improve the response and mitigate how a natural hazard turns into a social disaster. An actionable quantification of impact must be integratively multi-dimensional. We propose a rapid impact assessment framework that comprises detailed geographical and temporal landmarks as well as the potential socio-economic magnitude of the disaster based on heterogeneous data sources: Environment sensor data, social media, remote sensing, digital topography, and mobile phone data. As dynamics of floods greatly vary depending on their causes, the framework may support different phases of decision-making during the disaster management cycle. To evaluate its usability and scope, we explored four flooding cases with variable conditions. The results show that social media proxies provide a robust identification with daily granularity even when rainfall detectors fail. The detection also provides information of the magnitude of the flood, which is potentially useful for planning. Network analysis was applied to the social media to extract patterns of social effects after the flood. This analysis showed significant variability in the obtained proxies, which encourages the scaling of schemes to comparatively characterize patterns across many floods with different contexts and cultural factors. This framework is presented as a module of a larger data-driven system designed to be the basis for responsive and more resilient systems in urban and rural areas. The impact-driven approach presented may facilitate public–private collaboration and data sharing by providing real-time evidence with aggregated data to support the requests of private data with higher granularity, which is the current most important limitation in implementing fully data-driven systems for disaster response from both local and international actors.

scholarly journals Heated tobacco products likely appeal to adolescents and young adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. s41-s47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karma McKelvey ◽  
Lucy Popova ◽  
Minji Kim ◽  
Benjamin W Chaffee ◽  
Maya Vijayaraghavan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Risks ◽  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
Tobacco Product ◽  
Adolescent And Young Adult ◽  
Tobacco Products ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Philip Morris ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The 1960S

BackgroundBeginning in the 1960s in the USA and globally since 1998, tobacco companies have beenaggressively promoting heated tobacco products (HTP). In 2016, Philip Morris International (PMI) applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking authorisation to market their IQOS HTP system and flavoured ‘HeatSticks’ in the USA as a modified-risk tobacco product (MRTP).MethodsWe systematically evaluated the publicly available data PMI submitted to FDA in its MRTP application to determine whether PMI’s IQOS product meets the US Tobacco Control Act’s standard for MRTP claims. We examined whether PMI provided sufficient data showing tobacco users will not initiate with IQOS, that youth will not misperceive the MRTP-related claims being made concerning IQOS, and how youth perceive health risks associated with IQOS.ResultsPMI’s own studies failed to provide evidence that youth, including non-users and former users, will not find IQOS appealing, will not initiate use of IQOS and will not perceive these products as risk-free. Further, PMI did not refer to independent studies conducted among adolescents which could influence their conclusions. Finally, their studies suffered from design and implementation flaws and cannot be relied on to support the proffered claims.ConclusionPMI’s own data and available evidence from scientific studies conducted independent of the tobacco industry regarding how novel tobacco products are currently being marketed suggest that introduction of IQOS will result in adolescent and young adult non-users initiating tobacco use with IQOS and could also increase poly-use of IQOS along with other tobacco products.

scholarly journals Multiple hazards and risk perceptions over time: the availability heuristic in Italy and Sweden under COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3439-3447
Author(s):  
Giuliano Di Baldassarre ◽  
Elena Mondino ◽  
Maria Rusca ◽  
Emanuele Del Giudice ◽  
Johanna Mård ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Availability Heuristic ◽  
Multiple Hazards ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The severe impact of global crises, such as COVID-19 and climate change, is plausibly reshaping the way in which people perceive risks. In this paper, we examine and compare how global crises and local disasters influence public perceptions of multiple hazards in Italy and Sweden. To this end, we integrate information about the occurrence of hazardous events with the results of two nationwide surveys. These included more than 4000 participants and were conducted in two different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic corresponding to low (August 2020) and high (November 2020) levels of infection rates. We found that, in both countries, people are more worried about risks related to experienced events. This is in line with the cognitive process known as the availability heuristic: individuals assess the risk associated with a given hazard based on how easily it comes to their mind. Epidemics, for example, are perceived as less likely and more impactful in Italy compared to Sweden. This outcome can be explained by cross-country differences in the impact of, as well as governmental responses to, COVID-19. Notwithstanding the ongoing pandemic, people in both Italy and Sweden are highly concerned about climate change, and they rank it as the most likely threat.

scholarly journals A Global Study of COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions: The Role of Personal Experiences and Risk Perceptions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn Akel ◽  
Grace Noppert ◽  
Yogambigai Rajamoorthy ◽  
Yihan Lu ◽  
Awnish Singh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
The Us ◽  
Personal Diagnosis ◽  
Vaccine Decision Making ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to assess the impact of personal experiences on vaccine decision-making. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between experiences with COVID-19 and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Methods We administered 28 repeated cross-sectional, online surveys between June 2020 and June 2021 in the US and Asia. The main exposures were three types of experiences: COVID-19 diagnosis, knowing a friend/family member with COVID-19, and exposures to media containing COVID-19 patients. A series of logistic regression models estimated the association between each experience and acceptance of a hypothetical COVID-19 vaccine. We also explored perceived susceptibility as a potential mediator. Results Intent to vaccinate was lowest in the US and Taiwan, and highest in India, Indonesia, and China. Personal diagnosis with COVID-19 had the greatest impact on intentions to vaccinate across country sites compared to those who experienced a friend or family member diagnosed with COVID-19 or exposures to personal stories reported through media. In India participants that reported a personal diagnosis with COVID-19 had 12.95 times the odds (95% CI: 4.89, 34.28) of accepting a COVID-19 vaccine compared to those with no diagnosis. Higher risk perceptions were associated with higher intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Conclusions Proximity and seriousness of experiences are influential factors for intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. This study highlights the numerous ways in which pandemic experiences may influence intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 across geographies and cultures, where the course of the pandemic differed.

Lost in Translation? Exploring the journey from press releases to news articles and mainstream media during volcanic crises, and its impact on public perceptions.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Jones ◽  
Natasha Dowey ◽  
Rebecca Williams ◽  
Lewis Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online News ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Civil Defence ◽  
The Impact

<p>During a volcanic crisis, effective communication between volcano observatories, local government, civil defence authorities, the media and the public is crucial in ensuring the safe management of the situation. A breakdown in this chain of communication may lead to unsafe behaviours, mistrust of authorities, economic impacts, anxiety, or at worst, fatalities (see Williams and Krippner, 2019). Over the past 100 years, various stakeholders have made progress in volcanic crisis communication, but the 21st century presents significant challenges (Fearnley et al. 2017). The world in which we communicate has changed rapidly in recent years; information from official bodies can be posted, shared, translated, re-interpreted and disseminated rapidly via online news outlets and social media. Widespread use of the internet means crises communications must now be fast paced and sustained, pushing the limits of those working in internal communication (Driedger et al., 2008). The modern drive of journalism to create different angles and interesting ‘stories’ can lead to conflicting comments from multiple sources, which could cause public doubt about how well a hazard is being monitored and managed (McGuire et al, 2009). This project aims to better understand how the ‘translation’ of press releases by the mainstream media impacts the behaviours and perceptions of the local and global community during a volcanic crisis. To achieve this aim, the project will focus on two research questions:</p><p>1. How is the language used in volcanic crisis press releases variably ‘translated’ into mainstream media?</p><p>2. How is this language viewed and interpreted by the general public, and what impact does it have on perceptions of volcanic hazards, risk and uncertainty?</p><p>This project will use two methodologies. Firstly, press releases and their associated media be analysed to assess how information becomes translated and adapted. The communication of volcanic crisis information will be categorised and compared across different countries, languages, types of volcanism, and types of media, using recent case studies (e.g. Hawaii 2018 and Agung 2017). The second stage will investigate the impact of the translation/adaption of press releases by various media channels on public perceptions. Two focus groups will be carried out to provide a comparison; one group will read materials from the original press release and the other from social media/news articles. Both groups will then answer the same set of questions, allowing for critical comparison. This research will develop understanding of the power of modern communication to influence the public during volcanic crises. It will provide insights into how press releases are translated, with the potential to provide important learnings for the organisations that create and distribute them.</p><p>References Bird et al. (2012) Australian Journal of Emergency Management. (1) Driedger et al. (2008) USGS Professional Paper 1750. Fearnley et al. (2017) https://doi.org/10.1007/11157_2017_28 McGuire et al. (2009) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2009.02.019 Williams and Krippner (2019) https://doi.org/10.30909/vol.01.02.i-viii</p>

“Always Know Where the Gun Is”: Service Providers Perceptions of Firearm Access, Violence, and Safety Planning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110462
Author(s):  
Kellie R. Lynch ◽  
TK Logan
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Elder Abuse ◽  
Safety Planning ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
N 93 ◽  
The Impact

Given the heightened risk for fatality and known non-fatal harm firearms pose in abusive situations, it is critical to consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on firearm-related abuse and safety planning—particularly considering the surge in firearm sales in 2020. This study documented the impact of the pandemic on firearm access and violence, advice and safety planning surrounding firearms, and firearm-related abuse tactics through the perspective of victim service providers across the US participants included victim service professionals from both rural ( n = 93) and urban/suburban (i.e., non-rural; n = 78) areas who worked with victims of gender-based violence (i.e., intimate partner abuse and dating violence, child abuse, elder abuse, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking victims). Results revealed that nearly half of participants reported that abusers threatening to shoot victims or others became more frequent since the start of the pandemic, while nearly 30% reported that homicide involving firearms became more frequent during the pandemic. Further, nearly 40% of participants indicated an increase in firearm sales during pandemic—with higher sales in non-rural versus rural areas. Common themes related to safety planning with firearms included advising the victim to contact the system for help, assessing the location of firearms and/or remove the firearms, and leaving the abuser. The results stress the importance for safety planning around firearms when victims are isolated with an abuser at home and potential impact of abuser firearm access on public safety.

Social media, diffusion of innovations, morale and digital inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-495
Author(s):  
Marion Lucille Williams ◽  
Alexander Dhoest ◽  
Ian Saunderson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Digital Inequality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore social media usage in an academic library in South Africa and the factors influencing its use. The primary goal of the study was to examine perceptions surrounding the impact of non-adoption of social media on morale, and to explore the consequences of digital inequality. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative method, in-depth interviews were conducted with a small sample comprising six key informants at the University of Limpopo Libraries. Findings The findings suggest that non-adoption of social media has a negative influence on morale, and that it is a very necessary tool required for interaction with students as well as promotion and marketing of the library’s resources. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited to one academic library in South Africa situated in a rural area. The research suggests that more academic libraries in rural areas be studied to ascertain if geographical location and finance are barriers to social media adoption. Originality/value This study addresses non-adoption of social media and suggests ways to improve employee morale and retention. The research contributes to current research.

scholarly journals Health, Psychosocial, and Social issues emanating from COVID-19 pandemic based on Social Media Comments using Natural Language Processing (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oladapo Oyebode ◽  
Chinenye Ndulue ◽  
Ashfaq Adib ◽  
Dinesh Mulchandani ◽  
Banuchitra Suruliraj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Psychosocial Issues ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Data

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis that affects many aspects of human lives. In the absence of vaccines and antivirals, several behavioural change and policy initiatives, such as physical distancing, have been implemented to control the spread of the coronavirus. Social media data can reveal public perceptions toward how governments and health agencies across the globe are handling the pandemic, as well as the impact of the disease on people regardless of their geographic locations in line with various factors that hinder or facilitate the efforts to control the spread of the pandemic globally. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people globally using social media data. METHODS We apply natural language processing (NLP) and thematic analysis to understand public opinions, experiences, and issues with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic using social media data. First, we collect over 47 million COVID-19-related comments from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and three online discussion forums. Second, we perform data preprocessing which involves applying NLP techniques to clean and prepare the data for automated theme extraction. Third, we apply context-aware NLP approach to extract meaningful keyphrases or themes from over 1 million randomly-selected comments, as well as compute sentiment scores for each theme and assign sentiment polarity (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral) based on the scores using lexicon-based technique. Fourth, we categorize related themes into broader themes. RESULTS A total of 34 negative themes emerged, out of which 15 are health-related issues, psychosocial issues, and social issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic from the public perspective. Some of the health-related issues are increased mortality, health concerns, struggling health systems, and fitness issues; while some of the psychosocial issues include frustrations due to life disruptions, panic shopping, and expression of fear. Social issues include harassment, domestic violence, and wrong societal attitude. In addition, 20 positive themes emerged from our results. Some of the positive themes include public awareness, encouragement, gratitude, cleaner environment, online learning, charity, spiritual support, and innovative research. CONCLUSIONS We uncover various negative and positive themes representing public perceptions toward the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend interventions that can help address the health, psychosocial, and social issues based on the positive themes and other remedial ideas rooted in research. These interventions will help governments, health professionals and agencies, institutions, and individuals in their efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 and minimize its impact, as well as in reacting to any future pandemics.

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